Accused ‘had final say’ on submissions to Revenue

Former Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick told an employee not to submit his brother-in-law’s accounts to Revenue, which was investigating alleged tax evasion at the bank, a trial has heard.

The trial of three Anglo officials accused of hiding accounts connected to Mr FitzPatrick yesterday heard from the former head of compliance with the bank, Brian Gillespie, who also told the court that one of the accused, Tiarnan O’Mahoney, told him to get his approval before submitting accounts sought by Revenue.

The witness said another accused, Bernard Daly, had asked him if he would delete an account if Mr FitzPatrick asked him to.

Former company secretary Mr Daly, aged 65, of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin; former chief operations officer Mr O’Mahoney, aged 54, of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow; and Aoife Maguire, aged 60, of Rothe Abbey, South Circular Rd, Kilmainham, Dublin have pleaded not guilty to seven alleged offences in 2003 and 2004.

They are accused of trying to delete references to two accounts in the name of John Peter O’Toole from Anglo’s Core Banking System (CBS).

Mr Daly and Mr O’Mahoney also deny omitting the name of Mr O’Toole from a list provided to the Revenue Commissioners of people who held non-resident accounts worth more than €100,000 in 1995. Mr O’Mahoney and Ms Maguire further deny attempting to delete six other accounts connected to Mr FitzPatrick.

On day 14 of the trial, Mr Gillespie told the Circuit Criminal Court that, in 2003, he was tasked with supplying documentation to Revenue on non-resident accounts on which Deposit Interest Retention Tax may have been owed.

Mr Gillespie recalled being called to the office of Mr FitzPatrick,

who asked him about the inclusion of a non-resident account in the name of John Peter O’Toole. The court previously heard Mr O’Toole is Mr FitzPatrick’s brother-in-law.

The witness said that, by this stage, he had come across the O’Toole account himself during his work.

He confirmed that the account had an Australian address, had a balance of over IR£14,000 in June 1995 and had later been closed.

“He made it clear to me that a family member of his wasn’t to be returned to the Revenue,” Mr Gillespie said.