Anglo document shows defendant jointly borrowed $1.2m

Documents in the trial of three former officials of Anglo Irish Bank show one of the defendants as jointly borrowing $1.2 million with former chairman of the bank Sean FitzPatrick in 1997.

Patrick Peake, head of fraud prevention at Anglo and its successor, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, agreed Tiarnan O’Mahoney was listed as a borrower with Mr FitzPatrick for the loan, taken out for the purchase of shares.

Continuing his evidence at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Mr Peake also said there was a signature at the end of the loan facility document, dated December 1997, above Mr FitzPatrick’s name, but there was no signature above the name of Mr O’Mahoney.

Aoife Maguire (60) of Rothe Abbey, South Circular Road, Kilmainham, Dublin, Bernard Daly (65) of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin and Mr O’Mahoney (54) of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow have been charged with trying to hide accounts, connected to the former chairman of the bank, Sean FitzPatrick, from Revenue between March 2003 and December 2004.

They have pleaded not guilty.

The accounts involved included Lock Ltd/Suzie Ltd, Carnahalla Ltd/Suzie Ltd, Lock Ltd and Carnahalla Ltd.

Mr Peake, who was appointed to investigate the removal of accounts from the bank’s computer system in April 2010, agreed that other documents he discovered on the computer system showed the loan of $1.2 million was split into two accounts; Lock Ltd/Susie Ltd and Carnahalla Ltd.

He also agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, for the prosecution, that another document entitled “file note” and dated in January 1998, was from bank official Declan Quilligan. Its subject was “Carnahalla Ltd (SPF)” and “Susie Ltd (TOM)”.

Mr Peake said SPF stood for Mr FitzPatrick and TOM stood for Mr O’Mahoney.

The document detailed that the companies wanted to borrow $1.2 million to purchase 75,000 shares in Spiros Inc, a research and development company.

It was a bridging loan pending a drawdown of a loan from Guinness and Mahon, a private bank.

Mr McGinn also took Mr Peake through a series of screen shots from the bank’s core computer system that showed a change of details on accounts for Lock Ltd.

Mr Peake agreed the details were changed in 2003, two years after some of the accounts were closed, in December 2001.

Other accounts for Lock Ltd were closed in November 2000 and September 2003, but before the details were changed.

Another screen shot from the bank’s computer system showed Carna Ltd, closed in March 1998, had its name changed in 2003.

The court was also given details of transfers from Mr Fitzpatrick’s accounts into the accounts of Triumvrate Properties Ltd. Mr Peake agreed there was one lodgement from Mr Fitzpatrick of IR£3,500 in 1999 and Mr Fitzpatrick’s name appeared on a statement of the account in 2003. But his name was not on a statement given to gardaí in 2012.

Mr Peake agreed that between 2003 and 2012, Mr Fitzpatrick’s name had been removed from the record of the transaction.

He will continue giving evidence before Judge Patrick McCartan on Wednesday.