Ciaran McCarthy entered into a financial partnership with Penny King in August 2004 to open a restaurant utilising his cooking skills and her capital. She put up an investment of £50,000 which he rapidly spent, employing builder Charlie Stubbs to work on the décor and fittings but, being ambitious, wanted features such as halogen lighting and wooden flooring which he was told through a revised estimate would cost an additional £20,000.
Ciaran went to his bank and saw "Small Business Manager" Raymond Cummings, trying to banter with him in an effort to soft soap him into lending him the extra money, however he had been through Ciaran's credit history and found a "catalogue" of bad debts and numerous loans. The bank viewed him as a risk and refused the loan with Mr Cummings, for good measure, pontificating about Ciaran's action in depositing Penny's cheque and withdrawing the money in cash to pay Charlie, saying that he didn't approve of such transactions with "tradesmen".