The cover letter supplied by Irish Life with the Policy Documentation in August 1991 (see Document 6A of Appendix 1/6) stated : ‘Your policy documentation is attached, this sets out the full conditions of your Homeway Mortgage Plan. Please read the document carefully.’

I read the documents and found them extremely complicated. But I wasn’t looking for anything underhand or covert in them (after all, I had received the ‘expert advice’ of the First National Building Society). I was merely trying to understand them.

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It stated in THE SCHEDULE (see Document 6B of Appendix 1/6) that there was 100% Percentage Allocation of the money paid by my wife and I to Irish Life invested in the HOMEWAY MORTGAGE FUND. 

It stated in the Policy Conditions, in the Paragraph titled ‘Encashment’ (see Document 6C of Appendix 1/6), that: ‘The policy may be encashed at any time after it has been in force for two complete years.' 

I was dealing with two highly revered Financial Institutions and I trusted them absolutely. ––– I had no cause to suspect anything underhand. 

I had already paid my first month’s premium by direct debit. ––– I had received my Mortgage cheque. ––– I had a term loan to clear with my bank. ––– I had a house to finish building. 

So I gave the matter no further consideration.

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It was not until June 1993, when I received the letter from Irish Life stating that ‘During the first year there is no investment due to the various start up costs like, stamp duty, commission and initial expenses’, that it began to dawn on me that I had been taken for a fool.