Dunne's £20,000 cheque is traced

The bulk of lodgements totalling more than £500,000 to Mr Haughey have been eliminated from the tribunal's inquiries, it was …

The bulk of lodgements totalling more than £500,000 to Mr Haughey have been eliminated from the tribunal's inquiries, it was revealed yesterday.

The tribunal heard evidence from Mr John Trethowan, a project director of National Irish Bank, on the subject of accounts held by Mr Haughey at the bank's Malahide, Co Dublin, branch. The tribunal was told in May that lodgements totalling £580,774 had been paid into five accounts at this branch. Yesterday it heard these were held between 1993 and the end the tribunal's terms of reference on December 31st, 1996 .

Mr Justice Moriarty praised the "far-reaching investigations" carried out into the five accounts by Mr Trethowan and Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, counsel for the tribunal.

The tribunal also heard that a deposit was made to an account in the name of Charles J. Haughey trading as Abbeville Farm. This payment had consisted of a cheque for £20,000 made payable to cash from Mr Dunne. A lodgement form showed that the lodgement had probably been made by Mrs Maureen Haughey at the Malahide branch in June 1993.

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Mr Trethowan also testified that there were 12 other lodgements, with a total value of £52,885, about which there was some doubt. All appeared to have been paid for by cheques or instruments which the bank was unable to find in its archives. Mr Trethowan said the bank was still looking for them but a change in the bank's computer system in 1994 meant that it was difficult to trace payments made before that time. Most of the lodgements had been made by either a "P Wall" or an "M Sheehan".