BARNE ESTATE HEIR Richard Thomson-Moore has been questioned in court over an alleged “secret” phone offered to him by a third party so that he could contact without trace construction magnate Maurice Regan, a rival bidder to bloodstock billionaire John Magnier for the property.

Mr Thompson-Moore told the court today that after an exclusivity agreement with the Magnier bid expired he was in contact with Mr Regan on his personal phone anyway and did not understand the reason for the proffered new phone.

Mr Magnier is suing Mr Thomson-Moore and Barne over the collapse of the purchase. The estate has been owned by the Thomson-Moore family for generations.

Mr Magnier wants the court to enforce the deal he claims he sealed with Mr Thomson-Moore with a €15M hand-shake agreement for the 751-acre estate on 22 August, 2023, at Mr Magnier’s Coolmore home.

The Magnier side has sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group, seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been “unequivocally” agreed.

The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement, as they needed the consent of the trustees to finalise any deal.

Mr Thomson-Moore has told the court that while a “price” was agreed with Mr Magnier for Barne, a “deal” was not.

After agreeing on €15 million, Barne and the Magniers entered into an exclusivity agreement stipulating that Barne would not permit itself or its representatives to solicit or encourage any expression of interest, inquiry or offer on the property from anyone other than Mr Magnier between August 31 to September 30, 2023.

The trustees who hold the estate initially decided to remain loyal to the Magnier offer and felt Mr Regan’s higher offer could be seen as “provocative”. After the exclusivity period had ended, the trustees decided to go with Mr Regan’s offer of €22.25 million.

Mr Regan is not a party to the case.

At the High Court today, Mr Thomson-Moore told Caren Geoghegan SC, for the Magnier side, that he only found out the third party was allegedly in regular contact with Mr Regan about the deal after document discovery prior to the case.

Ms Geoghegan said it was her client’s case that the third party had been updating Mr Regan on developments in the deal and she read out certain text messages to the court this morning.

Ms Geoghegan put it to the witness that the third party had offered Mr Thomson-Moore a “secret”, ready-to-go-phone so that Mr Thomson-Moore could contact Mr Regan without being traced.

Mr Thomson-Moore said that after the exclusivity clause with Coolmore had expired, he was in contact with Mr Regan on his personal phone anyway and did not understand the reason for the proffered new phone.

Mr Thomson Moore said he did not personally receive the phone but that the third party had placed it in his kitchen. Mr Thomson-Moore said he never touched or used the phone.

Text messages read out by Ms Geoghegan allegedly showed Mr Regan sending a message to the third party saying “I think we are in with a chance” and for the third party to keep him “updated” and to have his “ear to the ground”.

Another message allegedly from the third party to Mr Regan said that the third party had spoken to Mr Thomson-Moore about local estate agent John Stokes, who was dealing with the sale.

Ms Geoghegan partially quoted an alleged text from the third party to Mr Regan, saying that Mr Thomson-Moore had allegedly told him “‘the more I think of things the more I think Stokes is’ …. a derogatory, disparaging word”, she said.

On 20 September, 2023, she submitted that the third party texted Mr Regan to say that Mr Thomson-Moore had told him, “everybody thinks it’s done but it is far from done”.

Mr Thomson-Moore did not deny saying so.

Mr Thomson-Moore said that his wife, Anna, had been frustrated by the trustees of Barne not considering one of Mr Regan’s offers – of €20 million – and that the family were in discussion of how to let the exclusivity agreement expire in order to “re-set” their approach to the deal now worth “life-changing money”.

Ms Geoghegan submitted that the Thomson-Moores were “using tax matters” to stall the Magnier deal. “You can read it that way but we were very concerned about tax,” said Mr Thomson-Moore.

The case continues at the High Court before Mr Justice Max Barrett.