‘Weak case’ against two ex-Anglo officials

The State’s case against two former Anglo Irish Bank officials, jailed for conspiring to conceal or alter bank accounts being sought by the Revenue, was astonishingly weak, the Court of Appeal has been told.

Tiarnan O’Mahoney, aged 56, of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, and Bernard Daly, aged 67, of Collins Avenue, Whitehall, Dublin, had denied knowingly furnishing false information and conspiring to defraud the Revenue as well as conspiring to have accounts deleted from the bank’s internal system.

After they were found guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Patrick McCartan jailed O’Mahoney for three years and Daly for two years on July 31, 2015.

Counsel for Daly, Seán Guerin, told the Court of Appeal yesterday the case against his client on the furnishing of false information was “fundamentally weak” and “non-existent” on the other two conspiracy counts.

In their appeal papers, Mr Guerin said the prosecution did not now actually say why Daly was guilty of anything and why the jury was right.

He said the prosecution had misled the jury on what the case would be at the outset, on what the case was at the end and he did not know how a trial court could conclude that the State’s presentation of the case was fair or accurate.

Counsel further submitted that there were substantial errors and omissions in the judge’s charge to the jury.

Mr Guerin will continue making submissions today.

Earlier, counsel for O’Mahoney, Brendan Grehan, concluded his submissions on a ground of appeal in relation to the admission into evidence of Daly’s unedited garda interview.

Mr Grehan asked the court to overturn his client’s conviction. O’Mahoney’s appeal against sentence was deferred until the outcome of his conviction appeal.