The High Court has released a Co Offaly businessman who was jailed for contempt of court over his failure to hand over leased machinery worth €2m.
Donal Rigney of Gortacur, Mountbolus, Tullamore was warned that he would be sent back to prison if he did not comply with a court order to return the machinery.
Mr Rigney absconded after an order to commit him was made on 23 August last.
A month later he turned himself in to gardaí, and was detained in Mountjoy until today.
Lawyers for Lombard Ireland - a finance company who sought to have him committed for failing to hand over the machinery - had objected to his application for release last week and today.
Senior Counsel Senan Allen said nothing had happened to progress the case until he was committed to prison.
He said he had ‘continued to make things impossible and at every turn had put up a barrage of smoke and drip fed information’.
Lombard brought proceedings arising out of Mr Rigney's failure to return 17 pieces of machinery, including dumper trucks, cranes and excavators, located in Dubai.
The equipment is worth an estimated €2m and was the subject of a finance agreement.
The court was told that a number of machines had been returned over the weekend but 11 were still outstanding.
Counsel for Mr Rigney Nuala Butler said there was nothing to be gained by keeping him in jail.
She told the court that Mr Rigney's wife, who gave birth to their youngest child four months ago, was seriously ill and was suffering due to his continued detention.
Ms Justice Laffoy said she was conscious of the hardship his wife was incurring and said she would temporarily release Mr Rigney.
But she warned him that he would return to jail if her order was not complied with. He also undertook not to leave the country.
At a hearing last week, Mr Rigney's application for release was refused after the court heard that after an order to commit him for contempt was made on 23 August he absconded with his family, travelling first to the north and then to Dubai.
He said he had gone to Dubai in an effort to arrange for machinery to be returned but those efforts could not be progressed if he was detained in a cell in Mountjoy.
