Banker was ‘not efficient’, fraud trial told

A former AIB employee who worked closely with Achilleas Kallakis was not acting as efficiently as the bank wanted, jurors at Southwark crown court heard in London.

Kallakis and Alexander Williams are accused of more than £60m (€75m) fraud against AlB and Bank of Scotland. Both have pleaded not guilty to 23 counts.

Taking to the stand on day 11 of the retrial, David McWilliam, former head of corporate banking for AIB in the UK, admitted there were some concerns about the bank’s exposure, which the prosecution referred to as “ever enlarging”.

Mr McWilliam was asked about his colleague Michael Cooke, a member of the lending team which dealt with Mr Kallakis. He said: “There were delays with Cooke, he had to juggle a lot, and sometimes he did not act as efficiently as the bank would like.” On one occasion McWilliam had to tell his peer to “pull the finger out”.

He also told Mr Cooke “to get on the bloody plane” to visit Hong Kong to visit Sun Hung Kai Properties, which was the firm purportedly behind guarantees on the properties AIB was lending money for Kallakis to buy.

However the court heard Mr Cooke did not fly to Asia. Instead he was told by Mr Kallakis that a representative from SHKP would visit the UK, and a meeting was set up in London.

Mr McWilliam also spoke of his own meetings with Mr Kallakis to find out more about his business and family trust.

He met Mr Kallakis for the first time in Mayfair in Jun 2006. In May 2007 they met again at the Monaco Grand Prix where he stayed on Kallakis’s yacht, and four months later had dinner at the Ritz in London. In Oct 2007 the bank decided Mr McWilliam should visit Switzerland to learn more of the Kallakis family trust.

“Ideally we would have liked to come away with tangible evidence [copies of the trust details], but we were told it was too confidential and members of the family might not agree” said McWilliam.

Court was adjourned due to a sick juror until further notice. The case continues.