The former Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, Sean FitzPatrick, was concerned about the name of his "mate" Denis O'Brien being mentioned in the context of a list of non resident account holders in Anglo Irish Bank, to be submitted to the Revenue Commissioners in 2003, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
However, the bank's former head of compliance, Brian Gillespie said he was able to reassure Mr FitzPatrick that the name was of a different man with the same name as the well known businessman.
Mr Gillespie was giving evidence at the trial of three former Anglo officials accused of hiding accounts connected to Mr FitzPatrick from the Revenue Commissioners.
Tiernan O'Mahoney, Aoife Maguire and Bernard Daly deny the charges.
Mr Gillespie described Mr FitzPatrick's concern that the name of his brother in law, John Peter O'Toole was to be submitted to the Revenue Commissioners as a non resident account holder following a high court order in 2003.
Mr Gillespie said at no time did Mr FitzPatrick ask him to delete the account from the list to be provided to Revenue.
But Mr Gillespie said he got the impression that if he had found it within himself to not report the account, then Mr FitzPatrick would be greatly pleased.
Mr Gillespie said he was very clear and consistent - the order was very straightforward and there was no way he was going to leave Mr O'Toole's account out.
Mr Gillespie said that while the focus was on Mr O'Toole, Mr FitzPatrick did ask him about another name in the context of names which had been or were to be reported to Revenue.
He said Mr FitzPatrick referred to the name "Denis O'Brien" and referred to him as "my mate, Denis".
Mr Gillespie said he was able to reassure Mr FitzPatrick as he did not believe then and he does not believe for a second that the name had anything to do with the Denis O'Brien that most people have in their minds.
He said it was a common enough name and this was a different individual who had an address in the UK.
He said he recalled that Mr FitzPatrick described him as a bit naive.
He agreed that he did not believe this Mr O'Brien was the better known Denis O'Brien.
Brian Gillespie told the court that in 2003 he was asked to supply documentation to Revenue on non-resident accounts on which Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) may have been owed.
Mr Gillespie said that Revenue had obtained a High Court order requiring Anglo to hand over details of non-resident accounts which had been closed.
He said the High Court order was for non-resident accounts but not necessarily bogus non-resident accounts.
He said he would supply requested accounts and Revenue would decide if they were bogus or not.
Mr Gillespie said he recalled being called up to the office of Sean FitzPatrick, who was then Chief Executive.
He said he didn't know why he was there but that it soon became clear it was in relation to the High Court order.
Mr Gillespie told the court yesterday and under cross examination today that Mr FitzPatrick asked him why an account in the name of his brother in law John Peter O'Toole was being included in the return to the Revenue Commissioners.
He said Mr FitzPatrick said his brother in law lived in the UK and was now living in Australia and supporting his mother.
He said Mr FitzPatrick was concerned that his brother in law was going to be "reported" to the Revenue.
He said he was aware that Mr FitzPatrick was protective about his family members in a normal way.
He said he explained that Mr O'Toole's account met the criteria outlined in the High Court order but he said he told Mr FitzPatrick that did not mean it was a "bogus non resident account" and that the order covered accounts where there was absolutely no issue as well as those where there was an issue.
He agreed that explanation did not really satisfy him.
He said he was again summoned to Mr FitzPatrick's office a week or two later.
He said Mr FitzPatrick said he had had a conversation with another director of the bank, Peter Killen and that Mr Killen had told Mr FitzPatrick to "just tell Brian to delete the account."
Mr Gillespie described Mr FitzPatrick's speech as a "monologue" and said he didn't get an opportunity to respond to specifics.
But he said when Mr FitzPatrick had finished, he reminded him about the criteria in the High Court order and said they had no choice but to comply and to provide the information requested.
He said not long afterwards, he was called to Mr FitzPatrick's office again.
This time Mr FitzPatrick told him he was concerned that a relative was going to be "reported" to the Revenue and was losing sleep over it.
He said this time Mr FitzPatrick gave him a different version of a conversation with Peter Killen.
He said that Mr FitzPatrick said that he (Mr FitzPatrick) had suggested to Mr Killen that he should just tell Brian to delete the account.
Mr Gillespie said at no time did Mr FitzPatrick ask him to delete the account from the list to be provided to Revenue.
But Mr Gillespie said he got the impression that if he had found it within himself to not report the account, then Mr FitzPatrick would be greatly pleased.
Mr Gillespie said he was very clear and consistent - the order was very straightforward and there was no way he was going to leave Mr O'Toole's account out.
He said Mr FitzPatrick said to him that he wanted him to be comfortable with his actions, in case he was ever called before a tribunal.
He said it was clear to him that if he did not report the account, Mr FitzPatrick would view it positively.
But Mr Gillespie that wasn't going to happen.
Mr Gillespie said he had tried to raise what Mr FitzPatrick had said with his superior, Director of Finance, Willie McAteer but he said Mr McAteer was in some sort of dispute with Mr FitzPatrick at the time and didn't want to talk about him.
He said he had a conversation with Tiernan O'Mahoney who said he must have been under terrible pressure and it must have been stressful talking to Mr FitzPatrick about this.
He said Mr O'Mahoney told him he should not include Mr O'Toole on the list for Revenue without getting back to him.
He said he told him afterwards that Mr O'Toole was to be included and he said Mr O'Mahoney said "Fine".
Former company secretary Mr Daly (65) of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin; former Chief Operations Officer Mr O'Mahoney (54) of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow and Aoife Maguire (60) of Rothe Abbey, South Circular Road, Kilmainham, Dublin have pleaded not guilty to seven alleged offences committed in 2003 and 2004.
The three are accused of trying to delete references to two accounts in the name of John Peter O'Toole from Anglo's Core Banking System (CBS).
Mr Daly and Mr O'Mahoney also deny omitting the name of Mr O'Toole from a list provided to the Revenue Commissioners of people who held non-resident accounts worth more than €100,000 in 1995.
Mr O'Mahoney and Ms Maguire further deny attempting to delete six other accounts, connected to Mr FitzPatrick.
Mr Gillespie agreed with lawyers for Bernard Daly that Sean FitzPatrick was a man who was used to getting his way.
He said that was fair.
Mr Gillespie agreed he was involved in preparatory matters between the bank and the Revenue Commissioners before the High Court order was granted in 2003.
He agreed there had been a previous audit by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to DIRT tax and that he had become the main contact for the bank in the case of that audit.
The second audit was carried out in 2003 after a number of individuals declared that they had bogus non resident accounts.
Mr Gillespie said he struggled to understand how the Revenue Commissioners had come to believe that it was not possible to access records for accounts from 1990 and 1995.
He denied that he was party to obstructing the Revenue Commissioners by falsely representing the state of the bank's records.
He said this was not true.
Mr Gillespie agreed that the High Court order stated that accounts meeting certain criteria were to be returned to the Revenue Commissioners by 30 June 2003.
He said the account in the name of Mr FitzPatrick's brother-in-law, John Peter O'Toole should have been included.
But he agreed it was not returned until 3 November 2003.
He said he could not recall the exact details of how Mr O'Toole's account was not on the list submitted in June 2003.
He said he had been told not to submit that particular account yet. He said he did not make the decision. But he said he was the person who was instructed not to return it at that time.
He said he was at all times trying to comply with the High Court order and revenue was very relaxed about the timing of the return.
Mr Gillespie denied a suggestion from Senior Counsel Sean Guerin that he had knowingly and wilfully furnished a list to the Revenue Commissioners in June 2003, which did not include Mr O'Toole's name.
Mr Gillespie said that was not a characterisation he would agree with and he didn't accept the premise of the question. He said Tiernan O'Mahoney had instructed him to leave Mr O'Toole's name off the June list.
