CMI account holder appears at Cooper Flynn trial

The High Court has been told that a woman feared she might end up in jail when she learned her CMI investment account was illegal.

Mrs Joy Hawe was giving evidence in the Beverly Cooper Flynn libel trial against RTE and Co Meath farmer James Howard and explained how she invested stg£86,000 in the CMI account after recommendations from the Fianna Fail TD.

Ms Hawe began to fear she would go to jail after the RTE expose on the CMI accounts.

She contacted Charlie Bird after reading an advertisement in the Anglo-Celt newspaper calling for CMI account holders to come forward.

Ms Hawe said she thought Mr Bird, whom she had never heard of, could help her.