Mr James Gogarty said yesterday that he kept a nest egg of £30,000 in cash in his house in the 1980s so his wife would have the money if anything happened to him.
After that he put his savings into an Isle of Man account, as he started drawing his pension, got ESB money, a Norwich Union pension, social welfare pension and a consultancy in May 1990.
Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, said that from December 1982 Mr Joseph Murphy snr had made some payments for Mr Gogarty's benefit into a trust account in Guernsey. The account was closed on October 31st, 1989 by withdrawing the total sum and transferring it to him.
Mr Gogarty said it was not closed until March 1993. In November 1989 there was about £83,000 in it. He transferred about £80,000 to a joint account with his wife in the Bank of Ireland in the Isle of Man on November 2nd, 1989.
Mr O'Neill asked him to look at an account document. For February 2nd 1990 there was an item described as "Cash received from client". That was £18,900. Mr Gogarty said he was the client. Asked if it was a sterling account, he said it was, so it would be about £20,000 Irish.
Mr O'Neill said at that time Mr Gogarty had retired from JMSE. What was the source of the £20,000?
Mr Gogarty said it was a nest egg they had built up over the years. In 1982 he had resigned his directorship but continued to draw a salary. He was pressing for a pension and agreed to stay for a year or so.
His wife was 19 years younger than him and he had a family of seven. He was not in the best of health over the years. He qualified for the social welfare non-contributory old age pension and he continued to draw his salary and he got a few bonuses in 1986. They were able to save £40 a week. "And in 1988, I remember, we had about £30,000 odd in the nest egg at home in cash," he stated. In December 1988 he went into hospital and had a number of operations. He felt vulnerable, as Mr Murphy controlled the trust and he decided to move the trust to the Isle of Man.
Mr O'Neill asked him where "that sum was before you put it into the Isle of Man account". Mr Gogarty said: "It was cash. I had it at home in the house. It was a nest egg we had at home over the years.
"We had relief that she (his wife) had access, ready access to this money if anything happened to me in the interim," he said.
He also lodged £25,000 on February 1st, 1991, the rest of the nest egg. Mr Gogarty said the monies in the Isle of Man account were repatriated in full and dealt with by the Revenue in 1993.