Kildare investor says his 'poor reading skills' are to blame for failure to repay €6.4 million loan

The former owner of the Setanta House Hotel- now called the Celbridge Manor Hotel- in Celbridge has had a summary judgement for €6.3 million entered against him following his inability to repay loans to Danske Bank.

Sean McElvaney, a native of Kildare, owned the hotel during the mid 00's and took out loans from Danske Bank(then known as National Irish Bank) relating to a €6.4 million facility, which included work that was due to take place at the Celbridge hotel.

The hotel eventually went into receivership in 2011 during the height of the recession, and the bank received just €815,000 when the receivership operation was completed.

Mr McElvaney claimed in his defence that he thought that his liability was limited to €1.3 million, and not €6.3 million. He said that because he left school at the age of 15 he had poor reading skills, and had no legal advice with him when he signed the agreement.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott rejected his claims that he did not realise what he was signing, and stated that Mr McElvaney had no reasonable grounds on which to create a defence against the bank's claim for judgement.