Beverly Cooper-Flynn,Faced further claims today
A retired business woman has claimed in the High Court that Beverly Cooper-Flynn told her the CMI offshore investment policy that she was buying was more or less completely watertight and not even the Revenue Commissioners could get access to it. Joy Hawe had invested over stg£84,000 in a CMI Personal Portfolio and she claims that Ms Cooper-Flynn knew that the interest on this money was undeclared. Ms Hawe was giving evidence on the 12th day of Ms Cooper-Flynn's libel action against RTÉ.
The retired boutique owner had two building society accounts in Enniskillen but the interest was not declared for tax purposes. She used this money to invest in a CMI policy with Beverly Cooper-Flynn. She claims that Ms Cooper-Flynn told her about an investment by a number only and her name would not be connected to it. When Ms Hawe asked her about confidentiality, she was told that not even the Revenue could get access to it.
Ms Hawe claimed that she had hoped that the investment would grow and allow her to meet her tax obligations. In April 1998, just after her retirement, she learned from NIB that there was a big problem with the CMI policy and the Revenue would be in touch. She was traumatised and felt that no one was helping.
She watched the story unfold on RTÉ and found it all very frightening. She said that it seemed as if Mary Harney was going to have a list of names posted to every telegraph pole and maybe a public flogging, and even thought that jail had been mentioned. She decided to meet Charlie Bird who was seeking CMI investors. Having lived for a long time in Northern Ireland, she initially did not know who he was, and thought he was a politican. "Maybe he'd like to be a politican," she quipped, as laughter erupted in the High Court today.
Earlier another former client of Ms Cooper-Flynn, Patrick Duff, concluded his evidence. He claimed Ms Cooper-Flynn had told him she would hide his undeclared money away in a numbered account.
