AIB man had 'no hang-ups' about Dunlop cheques

Mahon tribunal:The AIB banker who dealt with the accounts of Frank Dunlop was prepared to cash third-party cheques "endorsed fictitiously" and would have cashed "anything Mr Dunlop turned up with", counsel for the tribunal said yesterday.

Retired AIB bank manager John Aherne acknowledged that the way in which he handled cheques given to him by Mr Dunlop was irregular but, he said, "you do irregular things if you value your client and have a high regard for your client".

The tribunal was told that Mr Dunlop opened his first personal account with AIB College Street in 1986, where Mr Aherne was manager.

Mr Dunlop subsequently opened other accounts when he left the Civil Service and began to work in the public relations business.

Counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon SC, showed Mr Aherne a series of cheques, including some made out to third parties, which had all been cashed at AIB College Street.

A cheque for £20,000 was made out to a Barry McCarthy and was signed on the reverse "Barry McCarthy", but in Mr Dunlop's handwriting.

Mr Aherne said he was "intrigued" by the signature and did not recall the name Barry McCarthy ever coming up.

He said when he asked Mr Dunlop to endorse the cheques he presented, it was on the basis that he would sign them in his own name, but he may not have checked after accepting them.

"For all you knew . . . Mr Dunlop could have been involved in criminal activities," Ms Dillon said. "He could have been laundering money through your bank."

"That may strike you, but it didn't strike me," Mr Aherne replied.

He said Mr Dunlop had come to him highly recommended by former Supreme Court judge Hugh O'Flaherty, had been press officer for the Lynch and Haughey governments, and he trusted him.

Tribunal member Judge Gerald Keys asked if it was proper banking procedure to cash cheques made out to someone else, endorsed by Mr Dunlop in someone else's name.

Mr Aherne said it could be deemed irregular and he "had no hang-ups about that", but the worst that could happen to him was the cheques would come back unpaid.

Judge Keys replied that it wasn't a question of what was going to happen to him, but of right and wrong.

Ms Dillon asked Mr Aherne if he advised Mr Dunlop to open a separate AIB account in the Terenure branch to deal with large lodgements he didn't want to appear in his accounts in College Street.

Mr Aherne denied this. He said he opened the account on Mr Dunlop's request.

Mr Aherne also said he would not have facilitated Mr Dunlop had he known "how he used his money".

Ms Dillon told the tribunal that Mr Dunlop said he took out a loan of £22,000 in June 1991 to pay builders' fees, although he had £63,000 on deposit at the time.

He had said that he borrowed the money because he had been advised by Mr Aherne that if he paid the fees from his Rathfarnham account, it could be traced, Ms Dillon said.

"I don't believe I did," Mr Aherne responded.