Former Anglo executive William McAteer granted legal aid

Former Anglo Irish Bank executive William McAteer has been granted legal aid for two criminal trials.

The court heard previously that an enlarged jury panel would be required to deal with the trial involving Mr McAteer and three co-accused.

Mr McAteer (63), who has an address at Greenrath, Tipperary Town, faces charges of conspiring to mislead the bank’s investors about the true value of its deposit books.

His three co-accused are John Bowe (50), from Glasnevin, Dublin, who had been head of capital markets at Anglo Irish Bank; Denis Casey (54), from Raheny, Dublin, who was chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent (IL&P) until 2009; and Peter Fitzpatrick (61), from Malahide, Dublin, who had been IL&P's former director of finance.

They have been charged with conspiring to mislead investors by transferring €7.2 billion to make the bank appear more valuable between March to September 2008.

Mr Bowe and Mr McAteer also face one additional charge each that they falsified accounts contrary to section 10 of the Theft and Fraud Act.

Mr McAteer also faces trial in January 2017, accused of fraudulently obtaining a loan from Anglo Irish Bank to pay off a personal loan with Bank of Ireland in September 2008.

Defence counsel Lorcan Staines submitted to Judge Martin Nolan that Mr McAteer had self-funded his trial relating to Anglo Irish Bank last year, after which he was convicted of providing unlawful loans to businessmen known as the Maple 10 in July 2008 to buy shares in the bank, contrary to section 60 of the Companies Act. The trial ran for nearly three months.

Mr Staines said the upcoming trial with the three co-accused, set for January 16th, 2016, involved a “six times larger amount of documentation” than the case heard by Judge Nolan last year.

Mr Staines said his client has an annuity on his €1.5 million pension of €90,000 per year, but that his wife was entitled to half of the overall amount.

Judge Nolan acceded to Mr McAteer’s application for legal aid, acknowledging that the accused would not be able to afford the trials “unless he’s a man of extraordinary means”.

The judge took into consideration the number of documents that will be involved and granted a third junior counsel to Mr McAteer’s existing legal team.

Mr McAteer had previously been excused from the hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday.