Natasha Mercer gives evidence in FitzPatrick loan trial

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

Natasha Mercer was giving evidence in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in the trial of Seán FitzPatrick, who is accused of failing to disclose multimillion-euro loans linked to him to auditors. The proceedings were reported on 18 January 2017.

Mercer said she became aware of the annual refinancing of FitzPatrick’s loan in about 2001. She also said she felt threatened and shocked by a 2009 letter from Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement investigator Kevin O’Connell demanding documents. Mercer told defending counsel Bernard Condon SC that the letter’s language was “quite threatening”, while explaining that auditors had extensive access to the bank’s working files during their audits.

FitzPatrick had pleaded not guilty to 27 offences under the 1990 Companies Act: 22 charges of making misleading, false or deceptive statements to auditors and five charges of furnishing false information between 2002 and 2007. The report said the trial continued.