Banker admits it was irregular to pay out cash on cheques

RETIRED senior banker John Aherne was reminded at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he could have facilitated criminal activity and money-laundering in the early 1990s by handing out vast amounts of cash.

Mr Aherne had admitted cashing a number of third-party cheques — each to the value of several thousands pounds — when former lobbyist Frank Dunlop called to AIB Bank’s College Street, Dublin, branch.

Answering tribunal lawyer Patricia Dillon SC, he said: “That may strike you but it did not strike me. He [Dunlop] came highly recommended... It never struck me to think along the lines you suggest.”

Mr Aherne admitted it was “irregular” to pay out cash on these cheques that the one-time government press secretary had “fictitiously endorsed”. But he said he had assumed the cheques were properly endorsed.

“What he did with the money I do not know,” said Mr Aherne.

Pressed if he discussed with Mr Dunlop — even out of curiosity — why he needed IR£55,000 in cash on November 10, 1992, Mr Aherne told tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon: “You’re putting words in my mouth. My response to this question is: I cannot recall.”

There may have been some discussion but at this stage he could not recall.

Ms Dillon said an unexpected general election had been called in November 1992 — and when Mr Dunlop received £60,000 in cash in June 1991 it coincided with the local elections.

Mr Aherne said: “Until Mr Dunlop’s evidence to the tribunal I was actually unaware of the purpose — and he never disclosed to me what he was doing.

“I can tell you here categorically I had no iota [of knowledge] how he was using his money. Had I known, I would not have facilitated him.”

Later, Judge Mahon asked if Mr Aherne had satisfied himself about the legitimacy of Mr Dunlop’s transactions. Was it not his responsibility to establish why such large sums were being withdrawn in cash?

Mr Aherne, who retired as a manager at College Street branch in February 1999, said Mr Dunlop was introduced to him by former Supreme Court judge Hugh O’Flaherty in 1985.

Explaining his relationship with the lobbyist, Mr Aherne said he knew Mr Dunlop to be highly regarded.

In a series of questions, Judge Gerald Keys put it to Mr Aherne his approach was not proper banking practice and was contrary to bank rules.

Mr Aherne denied Mr Dunlop’s testimony that the banker told him that people who had large sums of money could walk out the door and take those sums and not be traced.