Anglo Irish Bank jury retired in conspiracy trial

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The jury in the trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank officials retired to consider its verdict. The proceedings were reported on 28 July 2015.

Aoife Maguire, Bernard Daly and Tiarnan O'Mahoney have pleaded not guilty. The charges concerned alleged attempts to hide accounts connected to former bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick from Revenue between March 2003 and December 2004.

Trial judge Patrick McCartan said the first charge alleged that Bernard Daly and Tiarnan O'Mahoney knowingly and wilfully made incorrect returns to Revenue. The other charges concerned conspiracy to delete records from the bank’s system and conspiracy to defraud Revenue.

The judge told jurors to consider each accused and each charge separately. He said the Director of Public Prosecutions carried the burden of proving the facts beyond reasonable doubt. Merely handing over the list to Revenue was insufficient: the jury had to be satisfied that Bernard Daly knew the information was incorrect, and the same requirement applied to Tiarnan O'Mahoney.

The judge said Aoife Maguire was not an officer of the company, but a person could agree to commit an offence they could not themselves commit. Conspiracy required an agreement; the substantive act did not have to be carried out.

He also directed jurors that they could not draw adverse conclusions from the three accused exercising their right not to give evidence.