Sean FitzPatrick case becomes longest-running criminal trial in State’s history

The trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick yesterday became the longest running criminal trial in the history of the State.

It is the prosecution’s case that multi-million euro loans taken out by Mr FitzPatrick, aged 68, of Greystones, Co Wicklow, and his family were “artificially reduced” for a period of two weeks around the bank’s financial end-of-year statement by short-term loans from other sources, including Irish Nationwide Building Society.

The jury has been told that the case is about the alleged failure by the bank’s former chairman to disclose the extent of these loans to the bank’s auditors in the years 2002 to 2007. Mr FitzPatrick has denied all charges.