Ex-RSA chief asked chairman for support

Philip Smith, former head of RSA’s Irish unit, asked for support from the division’s chair as directors sketched out the shape of a probe into accounting matters, an employment hearing heard.

Mr Smith asked unit chairman Leo Blennerhassett to “do your best for me’,’ as the firm began an investigation into how the company set aside money for large claims in October 2013, Mr Blennerhassett told an Employment Appeals Tribunal hearing in Dublin yesterday.

His evidence came in the fifth day of Mr Smith’s constructive dismissal case against RSA. Mr Smith left the firm in November 2013 as it investigated accounting at the unit. Mr Blennerhassett received the request from Mr Smith in a call on his mobile phone in October of that year, days after the reserving issues first emerged.