A Co Dublin businessman told a judge today that long queues in his local AIB branch was creating difficulties for him in paying off an €84,000 arrears debt on his mortgage.

Martin Ryan, of 40 Carrickbrack Road, Baily, Howth, Co Dublin, told Judge Jacqueline Linnane that when he dropped in to his Sutton branch he was met with long queues.

“They are always very busy and you have to queue for an hour to make a payment,” Ryan told the Circuit Civil Court.

Ryan, who represented himself in court, said he put his €250-a-week mortgage and arrears repayments into the bank’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) but the bank refused to accept payment by this method.

“I have been making weekly payments of €250 per week but AIB refuses to take my payments,” he said.

Barrister Keith Rooney, who appeared with Joynt and Crawford solicitors for the bank, said AIB was unable to accept payments via its ATM and Mr Ryan had been told this. He said the bank was seeking an adjournment to allow it to clarify some matters.

Ryan and his wife, Mary, are being sued by the bank for possession of their Baily property on foot of loans of €20,000, €65,000 and €120,000 taken out against their home. Repayment arrears now stood at €84,000, the court heard.

Warning him to continue making lodgements against his mortgage, Judge Linnane told him: “All of us have to queue and if you have to queue you have to queue. Don’t come back to me blaming the bank for something that is not the bank’s fault.”

The judge said it was clear from a letter the bank had sent him on 9th December last year that Mr Ryan could not make payments on his mortgage account through an ATM.

Adjourning the proceedings, Judge Linnane said €250 a week was not going to make a big dent on arrears of €84,000 but he should continue lodging the money.

The court heard the Ryans had failed to make payments due to the bank and a written demand for possession of the property had been made on April 9, 2014.

Online Editors