A former chief executive of a company at the centre of an £740m (€917m) property case has claimed his signature was forged.

A senior AIB banker claimed there was no doubt that Achilleas Kallakis was at the helm of a number of special-purpose vehicles used to buy UK properties, jurors at Southwark crown court in London heard.

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.

AIB gave “unusually favourable” terms to Dublin-based Green Property to take an €800m property portfolio off its hands, former chairman Dermot Gleeson has told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London.

Allied Irish Bank lent £98m (€123.5m) to an alleged fraudster on the back of dodgy guarantees from a top Chinese property firm, a London court heard yesterday.

AIB lent property tycoons Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams 12% more than was needed to buy the Daily Telegraph’s London headquarters building, at a time when it was keen to invest in UK real estate, jurors heard at Southwark crown court.

The purported guarantees from a Hong Kong developer was “significant”, AIB said, in fuelling its decision to loan money to property tycoon Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams.

AIB was duped using “dishonest means” into lending £740m (€922m) to London property tycoon Achilleas Kallakis and his business partner Alexander Williams, jurors heard at Southwark Crown Court, London.