TWO prominent organisations set up to help people facing debt problems are at war over comments made on Twitter, with both sides threatening to sue the other for defamation.
Solicitors working for New Beginning, a social enterprise set up by lawyers to advise those facing repossession or insolvency, wrote to David Hall and his co-directors in the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO) last week alleging that he had defamed the organisation and Ross Maguire, a senior counsel and the firm’s co-founder.
Twitter accounts for Hall, Maguire and New Beginning show a series of attacks by each side on the other’s modus operandi. Hall has accused New Beginning of abandoning clients who cannot afford its fees and criticised it for taking €700,000 in charges last year.
New Beginning, which operates as a not-for-profit, has attacked the IMHO, alleging it is not independent because it has a deal with two banks, AIB and KBC, where it advises customers.
The two banks paid the IMHO €624,000 for this service last year. Hall, who also runs the privately owned Lifeline Ambulance Service, was a co-founder of New Beginning before he left to found the IMHO in 2012 where he is chief executive. He is a well-known commentator on insolvency issues.
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The IMHO is in the process of registering as a charity. Last week its website said none of its directors, which include Constantin Gurdgiev, an economist, “receive any fees, salary or remuneration for their work from the organisation”.
The IMHO’s latest accounts show its five directors’ received €25,000 between them last year. Hall said at a board meeting last November it was decided to pay each director €5,000 to cover the exercise of their fiduciary duties “and expenses incurred over the previous number of years as there was no vouching system in place and directors paid expenses and bought office equipment etc when the charity was set up”. He said the website should have been updated.
Last week New Beginning filed a complaint with the Central Bank about the IMHO, claiming it should be subject to regulation. Maguire claims the IMHO has not met the legal requirements to be a charity which would exempt it from Central Bank oversight.
This is rejected by Hall. He said the IMHO was in the process of being approved by the Charities Regulatory Authority. “I actually don’t believe charities should be exempt from regulation and I have written to [finance minister] Michael Noonan to say this,” said Hall. He said he believed the New Beginning complaint to the Central Bank had no merit.
“They charge people over €3,500 to process their bankruptcy and we do it for free, except the mandatory €270 fees, so they obviously don’t like that,” said Hall. He rejected the allegation that any of his tweets had been defamatory. He said a tweet about a “vulture lawyer” was a reference to a solicitor who was under investigation by gardai and not anyone connected with New Beginning.
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In one tweet, Hall criticised New Beginning for charging debtors for its services. He also alleged they were profiting from the loss of ownership of family homes.
New Beginning’s Twitter account attacked the IMHO by referring to Hall’s previous position as head of the lobby group for Irish casinos. In one tweet, it said AIB should “come clean” about using a debt advisory firm headed by the former head of the lobby group for Irish casinos.
In complaint letters sent to the IMHO’s directors, Maguire and New Beginning complain that Hall’s tweets imply that they are dishonest, unprofessional and avaricious.
The letter said proceedings would be taken against Hall and warns that the IMHO could also be sued because of its chief executive’s actions.
In a response from IMHO’s solicitors sent on Friday it denied attacking New Beginning and said it was the one which had been “outrageously” defamed in a tweet from Maguire’s organisation. The letter warned that if the tweet was not deleted and an apology issued the IMHO could take court action.
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Maguire said: “We must charge for our services and we make no apology for this and we are completely transparent on this. We continue to provide extensive pro bono services where that is appropriate. We do not understand why David Hall or the IMHO attack us.”
Hall said he would not be intimidated by legal threats from New Beginning. He said IMHO advice had helped thousands of people stay in their homes since 2012.