Updated 1.15pm

THE BANKRUPT FORMER billionaire Seán Quinn will spend the next nine weeks in jail for contempt of court.

The man who was once the richest in Ireland has elected to go to prison today after being handed a nine week sentence at the High Court earlier. It means he will spend Christmas in jail.

Quinn had been considering whether or not to begin his sentence  today or ask to have it stayed until he appealed the sentence to the Supreme Court.

However his lawyers told the court this afternoon that he wished to begin his sentence today, RTÉ reports, adding that he had asked to be allowed out of prison to attend his granddaughter’s christening on 22 December.

Justice Elizabeth Dunne said that this was a matter for the prison authorities.

As he left the court, BBC News reports that he shook hands with supporters who had been present at today’s proceedings.

She sentenced Quinn at a hearing this morning referring to the contempt of court findings against the 66-year-old businessman at the court in June of this year.

Quinn’s son, Sean jr, was also found in contempt and has since served three months in jail but his nephew Peter Darragh Quinn, who was also found guilty, has avoided jail after travelling to Northern Irelnad.

The findings concern claims from the former Anglo Irish Bank – now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation – that Quinn and members of the Quinn family have asset stripped their property portfolio in Europe to put it beyond the reach of the bank which it is in millions of euro of debt to.

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