A BMW WHICH USED TO belong to former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán Fitzpatrick has been bought at auction on ebay and is expected to be crushed on behalf of the successful bidder.

Bidding had hit over €5,000 by this morning, but was back down to €3,150 at lunchtime, signalling that some bids were either dismissed or withdrawn.

That bid of €3,150 – the 30th for the car – was the winning bid when the auction closed at 3.20pm this afternoon.

The vehicle had been purchased by National Recycling when it was sold off during Fitzpatrick’s High Court bankruptcy proceedings last year.

National Recycling collected the car from outside Fitzpatrick’s home in Greystones on 14 January with a truck because it wouldn’t start. It said it would auction the car online in conjunction with RTÉ’s Derek Mooney Show, and expected the new owner would opt to destroy the vehicle.

“It will be crushed, same as Anglo,” said National Recycling’s sales manager, Conor Hand.

The car’s listing said:

The highest bidder will win the opportunity to go to the National Recycling plant in Clondalkin, push a button and crush the car. All money raised will go to The Samaritans…

Play your part in history.  Anglo Irish Bank is costing the taxpayer billions, this is your chance to crush this cursed car which is the symbol of all that was wrong with the Celtic Tiger!

As well as the chance to crush the car, the successful bidder also wins a €150 voucher for Pichet, a restaurant in Dublin city centre.