Trial of three former Anglo officials to continue next week

Defendants accused of trying to delete references to accounts from Anglo’s system

Judge Patrick McCartan who is presiding over case. Photograph: Collins/Dublin
Judge Patrick McCartan who is presiding over case. Photograph: Collins/Dublin

The trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank officials accused of hiding accounts connected with former chairman Seán FitzPatrick in an alleged tax evasion scheme will continue in evidence next Tuesday.

The trial, set to last until the end of July, has been in legal argument in the absence of the jury since Wednesday. Jurors were yesterday informed they would not be required until Tuesday. Judge Patrick McCartan previously told jurors the argument concerned the facts of the case and they were excused to avoid "infecting" them with material and information that did not constitute evidence.

Three former officials are accused of being involved in archiving and hiding offshore accounts connected to Mr FitzPatrick, which may have been liable for Deposit Interest Retention Tax (Dirt).

Former company secretary Bernard Daly (65), former chief operations officer Tiarnan O’Mahoney (54), and Aoife Maguire (60) have pleaded not guilty to seven alleged offences in 2003 and 2004.

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They are accused of trying to delete references to two accounts in the name of John Peter O’Toole, Mr FitzPatrick’s brother-in-law, from Anglo’s core banking system.

Mr Daly and Mr O’Mahoney also deny omitting Mr O’Toole from a list for Revenue Commissioners of people with non-resident accounts worth over €100,000 in 1995.

Mr O’Mahoney and Ms Maguire further deny attempting to delete six other accounts connected to Mr FitzPatrick from the system.