A struck-off solicitor and an elderly businessman will be sentenced shortly for defrauding a bank of almost €9m to buy land now worth €30,000.

Two men have appeared in court in Kildare charged with theft and fraud offences amounting to over €8.8m.

A HIGH Court judge has said a bank has been the subject of a “scam” relating to a sum of a €7 million loaned by it for a land purchase in Co Offaly and he had been told a “cock and bull story” by a businessman who gave evidence before him yesterday.