Firm linked to jailed solicitor Michael Lynn sought to buy Bray nursing home for asylum seekers
A company central to a Garda money-laundering probe tied to Michael Lynn tried to purchase a former Bray nursing home for €2.8m to house asylum seekers.
Ribblesway sought €2.8m Bray nursing home purchase amid Garda money-laundering probe
A company at the centre of a Garda investigation into suspected money laundering connected to jailed solicitor Michael Lynn attempted to purchase a former nursing home in Bray with a view to accommodating asylum seekers, the Irish Times reports, citing High Court documents.
The company, Ribblesway Limited, entered into what it claims was a binding agreement in May 2023 to buy 2–3 Fitzwilliam Terrace, Strand Road, Bray — formerly Shannagh Bay Nursing Home — from Alan and Pauline Smith of Killinure Glasson, Co Westmeath, for €2.8 million. The agreement came two months after the owners had announced the home was to close.
Prior to finalising any deal, Ribblesway had commissioned a consultant's report indicating the property could generate annual State income of between €4 million and €4.5 million, based on an occupancy of 90 people. The consultant's report also noted a two-year "cooling-off period" before a former nursing home could be used to house asylum seekers.
The purchase never proceeded. A receiver, Ken Tyrrell of PwC, was appointed in April 2024 by BBF Capital Partners Ltd, which had loaned money to the Smiths in 2017. The Bray property was ultimately sold in May 2025 for €2.65 million. Ribblesway has since lodged an injunction application in the High Court seeking to prevent any dispersal of the sale proceeds.
The Smiths, BBF Capital Partners and the receiver all dispute Ribblesway's claim that a binding agreement existed. Shane Flood of BBF described the claim as "vexatious" in a sworn affidavit filed in response to the proceedings. All defendants have also argued that Ribblesway is not in a position to give a reliable undertaking as to damages, noting that the company's bank account was frozen in June 2024 following a District Court order granted to An Garda Síochána as part of a money-laundering investigation.
Ribblesway is owned by John Holleran (62), a London-based businessman who gave a character reference for Lynn at his sentencing hearing. In a June 2025 affidavit, Holleran said the company "strongly contests" the basis for the frozen-account order and intended to challenge it, though that challenge has yet to come before the courts. He said he believed the company would be successful in overturning the order.
Gardaí are investigating Holleran's claim that he invested €1.4 million in Ribblesway following the sale of his shares in a UK company. Company filings suggest this cash injection took place in late 2023 or early 2024. In December 2024, Ribblesway registered a charge against a house it owns in Sallymount, near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, in favour of Holleran.
That Sallymount property — a four-bedroomed detached house purchased by Ribblesway in December 2021 for €460,000 — serves as the company's registered address and is the subject of a separate strand of the Garda investigation. Lynn's wife, Brid Murphy (52), has been living there in recent years with the couple's children. Lynn himself is reported to have been seen at the property on day release from Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow.
No mortgage was registered against the Sallymount house, and publicly available records indicate it is the company's only asset.
The purported 2023 agreement between Ribblesway and the Smiths was drawn up on headed notepaper bearing the name Resi Quantum Solutions Ltd, a real estate company incorporated in April 2020 that also uses the Sallymount address as its registered office. In the document, Ribblesway is referred to as "Ribblesway, trading as Direct Accommodation Services" — a business name registered by Ribblesway with the Company Registration Office in September 2022.
Ribblesway additionally holds the registered business name St Vincents Accommodation Services (Sandford, Dublin). It registered the name Brothers of Charity Accommodation Services in August 2023 before switching to St Vincents Accommodation Services the following month. Whether any business was ever conducted under these names is not known.
High Court records show that the Smiths consented to Holleran meeting with BBF to discuss the Bray property, and that Ribblesway made a payment to BBF on behalf of the Smiths, as well as spending on works at the Bray site. Nevertheless, the proposed transaction never completed.
Lynn (57) was sentenced in December 2023 to five and a half years in prison for the theft of €18 million from six financial institutions. The offences took place during the property boom, when Lynn became involved in a complex web of deals in Ireland and abroad. He was accused of stealing a total of €27 million but was not convicted on all counts. After his business collapsed, Lynn lived overseas for several years before being extradited from Brazil in 2014. He was convicted following a retrial in December 2023, after a jury in an earlier hearing failed to reach a verdict.
The Garda investigation into Ribblesway centres on a suspicion that not all of the money stolen by Lynn has been fully accounted for. Ribblesway was incorporated in May 2021, several months before it acquired the Sallymount property.
Source: Irish Times