A group which lent hundreds of millions of euro to developer Seán Dunne to buy the Jury's and Berkeley Court hotels more than six years ago has told the Commercial Court that it has regained control of the hotels.
Lawyers for the syndicate, which is led by Ulster Bank Ireland Limited, told the court that a company of which Mr Dunne is a director, MJBCH Limited, had given up possession of the hotels.
A company called Mavior, which is ultimately owned by Mr Dunne's wife, Gayle Killilea, has also given up possession of the fixtures and fittings of the hotels.
Mr Dunne paid €275m for Jury's Hotel and €125m for the Berkeley Court in Ballsbridge in Dublin in 2005. He borrowed almost €300m euro from Ulster bank Ireland Limited to buy the hotels.
Four-year director bar for Stokes brothers
Brothers Simon and Christian Stokes have been disqualified from acting as directors of any company for just over four years.
The High Court made the orders this afternoon after an application by the liquidator of their company, with the consent of the brothers.
The brothers' restaurant business in Dublin was wound up in 2010 with debts of €2.4m.
This application was made by the liquidator of Mayfair Properties, the company which ran the Bang Café Restaurant on Merrion Row.
The court was told that Simon and Christian stokes should be disqualified from being directors of any companies because of their personal use of company credit cards, an inter-company loan and the use of a credit card machine belonging to another company.
Lawyers for the brothers said they accepted that they had acted irresponsibly and were consenting to the disqualification. But the court was told they were young men, with young families and heavy mortgages.
They had a very public fall from grace, the court heard, as they had had "celebrity status" during the Celtic Tiger years. The court heard they were now working in their father's restaurant and received a salary of €2,500 a month each.
They were already subject to restrictions in acting as directors of companies. They have now been disqualified completely until the end of March 2016.
