AIB HAS initiated a High Court action against its former head of commercial services, Tommy Hopkins, and his wife, Mairéad.

The reason for the proceedings is not known and a spokesman for the bank would not comment yesterday. Mr and Ms Hopkins could not be contacted. Last year the bank said it was conducting an inquiry into the business activities of Mr Hopkins and of another senior executive with the bank, John Hughes.

Mr Hopkins (51) resigned as a director of the AIB subsidiary, AIB Commercial Services Ltd, on November 17th last year, filings in the Companies Office show, and it is understood he is no longer an employee of the bank.

The bank’s case against its former senior executive and his wife was filed on the same date as his resignation took effect.

Mr Hopkins was a significant property developer and investor while also working in AIB’s Bankcentre and dealing with many of its top property clients. Ms Hopkins was a director of a number of companies with her husband.

However, filings in the Companies Office and in the Land Registry indicate the couple’s property dealings were not financed by AIB.

Earlier last year, Mr Hopkins transferred his interest in his family home to his wife. The home in Palmerston Park, Rathmines, which is also used as a business address by the couple, is the subject of two AIB mortgages taken out in 2005 and 2008. The mortgages remained outstanding, according to filings in the Registry of Deeds.

Mr and Ms Hopkins transferred their interest in a property on Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, Dublin, to themselves acting as trustees for the Hopkins Trust, in March 2009. A mortgage with AIB against the property was taken out on the same date, with Mr and Ms Hopkins acting as trustees.

The latest accounts for Marchbury Properties, a company owned by Mr Hopkins and a business associate, Thomas Durcan, state that the company is dependent on the continued support of its bankers to remain in operation.

Of the €28 million due to creditors at the end of April 30th, €26 million was due to banks, according to the accounts.

The directors in their statement accompanying the accounts say they are of the view that the company will continue to have the support of its principal lending institutions. The directors, Ms Hopkins and Mr Durcan, signed the accounts last September.

The accounts list Bank of Ireland and First Active as the company’s bankers and filings show three mortgages registered by First Active.

The accounts state that work in progress is worth €27.2 million and consists of the purchase costs of sites in Maynooth, Co Kildare, and Donabate, Co Dublin. The value includes a write-off of 28 per cent being the directors’ best estimate of the sites’ deterioration in value as at the end of April 2009.

At the end of the period, the company had shareholders’ funds of €346,768, down from €1.5 million the previous year.

Mr Hopkins is a 50 per cent shareholder in Marchbury with Mr Durcan owning the other half. The company built 222 houses in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, in the year to the end of April 2007.

Mr Hopkins and Mr Hughes, the head of business banking with AIB in Eyre Square, Galway, are shareholders in Banagher Investments, which was involved in property developments in Stoneybatter, Dublin.

Mr Hopkins is a shareholder and director of Phb Endow, an unlimited company. His partners in the company, which trades in endowment policies, are Tom Browne and Paul Pardy, both of whom are former Anglo Irish Bank executives who have also been involved in property development.