A Dublin accountant told a Belfast court yesterday that when he audited the books for International Investments Ltd as of June, 1982, he found the company to have assets exceeding £166,000 over the liabilities.

Mr George Balmer said he had been asked by Mr George Finbarr Ross to provide an audit in early 1983 for the purpose of renewing the banking licence in Gibraltar where the company was based. He admitted that much of the information he had used was supplied by Mr Ross, but other documents had come from the company office in Gibraltar and from property valuers in the Republic of Ireland.

The witness was giving evidence in the trial of 54-year-old Mr Ross who is before Belfast Crown Court denying a series of fraud charges. Mr Ross, who was born in Cork but now has an Oklahoma address, is alleged to have encouraged investors in Northern Ireland to deposit funds with his company in December 1983, knowing it to be insolvent. He also denies 36 charges of false accounting.

Mr Balmer told the jury that in his balance sheet for June, 1982, signed in April, 1983, he showed the company had assets of £5,452,497, with liabilities including share capital of £166,214 pounds less.

Asked about his relationship with Mr Ross the witness said: "It was extremely professional. I would have considered him a good client". The trial continues.