Coolmore arranged for a UK-based property investment consultant to make bids on Barne Estate on its behalf, the High Court heard on Wednesday 4 June.

Voice notes from UK-based Charles Buckley to John Magnier’s son-in-law David Wachman were played in court.

Niall Buckley, senior counsel for Richard Thomson-Moore and the Barne side, told the court that Charles Buckley arranged for a bid to be placed on Barne Estate at €10.5m (including farm machinery).

The court heard allegations that two agents acting for Coolmore were used to get information about the bidding process - a Mr Evans and a Mr Fell.

The allegations were made on the fifth day of the case John Magnier has taken with his son John Paul Magnier and daughter Katherine Wachman against Richard Thomson-Moore, Barne Estate Ltd and two Jersey-registered companies, alleging that they broke a binding deal to sell Barne Estate for €15m and an exclusivity agreement, by agreeing to sell the estate to construction magnate Maurice Regan for a higher amount of €22.25m.

Mr Evans, Niall Buckley SC said, portrayed himself as acting for a wealthy UK investor.

“But that wasn’t true – he was acting on your instructions,” Mr Buckley put it to David Wachman. “It was part of a ruse wasn’t it?”

A voice note from Charles Buckley to David Wachman, played in court, referred to a ‘low-ball’ bid.

“A deceptively or unrealistically low bid - isn’t that what a low ball is?” Niall Buckley asked David Wachman.

“I understood it [a low-ball offer] to be lower than the expectation,” David Wachman replied.

He disagreed with Mr Buckley that the aim was to dent the confidence of the Thomson-Moores in the value of their property, Barne Estate.

A separate approach from Mr Evans, purportedly acting for a wealthy UK investor, asked John Stokes to ask the Thomson-Moores to give a price by 6pm the same day, at which they would be willing to take Barne off the market or his client would withdraw their offer.

Two bids

On 28 July 2023, when Coolmore adviser Jerome Casey made a bid of €10m (excluding farm machinery) on behalf of Coolmore, Niall Buckley SC said this meant that the Thomson-Moores believed they had “two bids, well below the guide price, ostensibly from two different bidders”. However, both bids were from Coolmore, he alleged.

When he received Coolmore’s bid of €10m from Jerome Casey, auctioneer John Stokes told Mr Casey that he had already received another bid of €10.5m from another party.

This, David Wachman said in court, meant “we knew we were getting told the truth by the agent”. He added that from that point on, Coolmore “went in the front door”.

Mr Wachman, being cross-examined by Niall Buckley for the Barne defendants, was also asked about messages he sent to Coolmore adviser Jerome Casey in late August, after the alleged handshake deal between John Magnier and Richard Thomson-Moore to buy Barne for €15m.

Risk

David Wachman’s message, read in court, asked: “Is there anything signed re Barne?” and noted that “JM” - believed to be a reference to John Magnier - was “very animated” and added that they didn’t “need anyone coming up on our inside”.

Mr Wachman was questioned by Niall Buckley SC about whether he knew there was a risk someone could “get up your inside”, putting it to Mr Wachman that there was no written contract in place.

David Wachman replied that anyone could “capsize your canoe at any time”.