Two jailed Anglo chiefs ‘did not receive fair trial’

Two former Anglo Irish Bank executives convicted of conspiring to conceal or alter bank accounts being sought by Revenue did not receive a fair trial, the Court of Appeal was told yesterday.

Former chief operations officer Tiarnan O’Mahoney and former company secretary Bernard Daly are appealing their convictions.

O’Mahoney, who was second in command at the bank, received a three-year sentence. Daly was sentenced to two years.

O’Mahoney, aged 56, of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, was also convicted of furnishing incorrect information to the Revenue Commissioners in 2003.

At yesterday’s appeal hearing, Brendan Grehan, counsel for O’Mahoney, told the court there were 21 grounds on which his client was making his appeal.

There were four pieces of evidence which “drastically” altered the position against the accused, the court was told. The were the cross-examination of witness, Brian Gillespie; an email sent by former assistant manager Aoife Maguire; the evidence of IT executive James Shaw; and the unedited interviews of Mr Daly.

These “individually or cumulatively resulted in rendering it an unfair trial,” Mr Grehan said.

Earlier, Lorcan Staines, also for O’Mahoney, told the court there were two “unusual features” in the investigations on which the trial was based.

The first was that the investigation had been outsourced to a fraud investigator within Anglo, Patrick Peake. Regarding the second Mr Staines said that O’Mahoney had not been charged within the statutory time limit of 10 years.

The appeal continues.