Top heart surgeon 'amazed' at deposit

THE DOCTORS: Consultants, GP and dentist are linked to funds connected with Ansbacher

THE DOCTORS: Consultants, GP and dentist are linked to funds connected with Ansbacher

The leading heart surgeon, Mr Maurice Neligan, told the inspectors he was "amazed" when he discovered that his money was lodged in the Cayman Islands in an Ansbacher account, according to the report.

During cross-examination by the inspectors, Dr Neligan said he only found out in recent years that the money he lodged with Guinness & Mahon bank in Dublin found its way to the Caymans.

The inspectors have accepted that his money was moved into an Ansbacher account without his knowledge.

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"I was, to put it mildly, amazed when I found that I was in fact named in this list and that I had money in the Cayman Islands, because I had no recollection of that whatsoever," Mr Neligan told the inspectors.

Mr Neligan also said during his evidence that he maintained an offshore account in the Isle of Man during the early 1980s, which was not connected with the Guinness & Mahon operation.

He said the money in this account - earned from overseas patients - was not known to the Revenue at the time, but was later disclosed under the 1993 tax amnesty.

Asked about this account Mr Neligan replied: "At the time that I put money overseas, it was a time, if you remember, of extremely high taxation. I did what I shouldn't have done, but what a lot of other people also did."

Mr Neligan said his accountants handled virtually all his financial affairs during the 1970s and 1980s.

"I am not a very financially astute person, sir, money is not my forte, as is probably glaringly obvious to you by now," he told the inspectors.

Dr Neligan, who recently retired, and his wife Dr Patricia Neligan, borrowed money from Guinness and Mahon in 1986 to buy a house. At the same time £90,000, drawn from the account in the Isle of Man, was put on deposit with Guinness & Mahon.

Part of this was used to buy gilts, but the inspectors found that "for some unknown reason" and without the knowledge of the Neligans, the remainder was put into an Ansbacher account.

The Neligans closed this account in 1989.

Mr Neligan said apart from the Guinness & Mahon accounts, he also maintained the Isle of Man account for some years.

"A lot of that was money that was paid to me by patients who were non-Irish. Some of the money came - actually £10,000 came in from the Emir of Bahrain. Various people like that".

During her evidence, Dr Patricia Neligan said while Guinness & Mahon may have sent the couple statements from time to time about their account she would not have read them and would have passed them on to their accountants.

She said the couple rarely visited Guinness & Mahon bank. "Maurice very often wasn't available and I wandered in like Alice in Wonderland and signed whatever was there."

While the Neligans are by far the most prominent doctors in the report, others also feature.

One of these was Dr Colm Killeen, a GP, and close neighbour of Mr Traynor's in Dublin. He said he knew nothing about Ansbacher until the mid-1990s when he was contacted by Mr Traynor. "To be truthful, in illo tempore, I thought Ansbacher was a man, because I never heard the name mentioned before that," he told the inspectors.

He said in the late 1970s he opened an account with Guiness & Mahon via Mr Traynor. He said Mr Traynor would drop statements - which had nothing written at the top - into his letterbox from time to time.

He said after reading about accountant Russell Murphy in the 1980s - who absconded with savings belonging to broadcaster Gay Byrne among others - he started to ask questions of Mr Traynor.

"I said: 'Where is all this damn money?' Because I had occasion to get a cheque for some repairs to my aircraft and it was a sterling cheque. He said your money is in England".

Dr Barrie Collins, a retired GP from Cork, told the inspectors he had no connection with Ansbacher and the inspectors accepted that the investment of shares he owned was the responsibility of his brother Mr Neil Collins. These shares ended up in a company which had a connection with Ansbacher.

An obstetrician, Mr William Kearney, now deceased, is also named in the report as having a deposit account with Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust.

A dentist, Mr Denis A Jackson, was found by the inspectors to have an Ansbacher deposit opened through Mr Jack Stakelum.