Four dockets found for 275 Anglo withdrawals, court told

Of 275 cash withdrawals worth €173,800, and made from a customer account at Anglo Irish Bank, only four withdrawal dockets could be found during an investigation in 2010, the trial of three former officials at the bank has heard.

Patrick Peake, head of fraud prevention at Anglo and its successor, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, agreed as part of his investigation in 2010, he could not find any more back-up documentation for the transactions, involving the account of John Peter O'Toole, the brother-in-law of former chairman of the bank, Sean FitzPatrick.

Continuing his evidence at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, he also agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, for the prosecution, that the vast majority of those withdrawals were made at a cash desk of the Dublin branch of the bank, on St Stephen’s Green.

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

They have pleaded not guilty.

Mr Peake was appointed to head an investigation in April 2010 into accounts that had been removed from the bank’s core banking system, the court had heard.

On Wednesday morning, Mr McGinn took Mr Peake through a series of documents shown on screen in the court room.

There were payments into a current account of Mr O’Toole, with addresses abroad, from an Anglo account in the name of Sean and Triona Fitzpatrick, on a monthly basis for €410 or IR£330, Mr Peake agreed.

He also agreed he found a paper instruction for the payments in the bank’s archives. Mr McGinn pointed out that the instruction was signed “Mary O’Toole”, whom the court heard previously was Mr FitzPatrick’s mother-in-law. Mr Peake agreed he could not find Mrs O’Toole listed as an account holder.

He also said “theoretically” the payment was coming from the FitzPatricks’ account, so it should have been signed by one or other of them, rather than by a recipient.

“I suppose that is just another unusual feature, is it?” Mr McGinn asked.

“Yes it is,” Mr Peake responded.

He agreed there were 275 cash withdrawals of €410 or IR££330 from Mr O’Toole’s current account with only four withdrawal dockets found in the archives.

Mr McGinn said one of the dockets found was dated August 18th, 2004 and appeared to indicate a cash withdrawal of €410 and was signed “Mary O’Toole”. The bank stamp was for the St Stephen’s Green branch and another stamp stating “mandate checked” was signed by a staff member. Mr Peake said this signified a staff member had reviewed the mandate form, filled in when the account was opened, and reviewed the signature on it to see if they matched.

“But the mandate didn’t have Mary O’Toole on it,” Mr McGinn a suggested.

“Correct,” Mr Peake responded.

Mr McGinn also took Mr Peake through documents related to two companies, Lock Ltd and Susie Ltd Lock Ltd had an address at 69 Athol Street, Douglas, Isle of Man, the court was told.

“That is the address of the former office of Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Isle of Man,” Mr Peake said.

Mr McGinn produced 45 documents which he said related to Susie Ltd. Mr McGinn confirmed he was able to ascertain from the documents that Susie Ltd was registered in the Isle of Man and the directors and signatories of the company were “in the main part”, directors or employees at Anglo Isle of Man.

Mr McGinn asked if this meant the bank itself could exercise transactions on the Susie account because the signatories were working for the bank.

Mr Peake said it did. Asked if he could ascertain the beneficiary of the accounts, he said he could not.

He also confirmed other documents displayed on screen in court showed share transactions carried out in Lock Ltd accounts.

Asked to examine another screen shot from Anglo’s core banking system involving a transaction in account numbered 980013, Mr Peake said the client name on the transaction said Susie Ltd, but on other documents, the number was an account reference for Lock ltd. He said the transaction showed a credit was made to that account for IR £71,000 on August 31st, 1999.

Mr McGinn asked him where the money came from. He said it “would have originated in an account in the name of Sean and Triona Fitzpatrick”.

He agreed another screen shot showed a transfer of $22,460 out of an account in the name of Mr FitzPatrick labelled as going to Susie Ltd, but it appeared in a bank statement of Lock Ltd.

There were also other transactions from Susie Ltd credited to Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Isle of Man, including one on February 12th, 1999, for $500,000, the court was told. Mr Peake agreed the figure appeared in a bank statement on the same date as a debit out of Lock Ltd.

The trial is due to continue before Judge Patrick McCartan next Monday.