The High Court heard yesterday how a seriously depressed man who had never been involved in the clothing trade allegedly made a £100,000 investment in a business venture with his friend, which required him to store specially made jeans on his own premises and travel round the State selling them.

Asked by Mr Justice Peter Charleton - presiding over the case taken by Cornelius Cagney against First Active (formerly First National Building Society) - whether the above scenario was hard to believe, witness Tony Sheridan agreed that it did indeed sound rather implausible.

Mr Sheridan was testifying on the fifth day of the case where Mr Cagney is suing First Active alleging negligence and non-compliance with instructions. He alleges that, in 1995, Declan McCann, manager of the First National branch in Kilkenny, failed to put £141,161 into a new account in the name of himself and his two daughters as requested and instead put £100,000 of the money into an account in the name of his [ Mr Cagney's] friend Mr Sheridan, with the balance going into an account in his own name.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Sheridan said he was present at the meeting between Mr McCann and Mr Cagney on May 16th, 2005 and that he was in "no doubt" that Mr Cagney instructed that the money to be split in order for the £100,000 to be invested in a business venture involving the design and manufacture of high-fashion jeans.

Mr Sheridan said that, while it did sound rather unusual for a man who was exiting his own insurance business because of depression to be embarking on a new venture, he saw it as the only way to help Mr Cagney "get going again" following the death of his wife in a car accident.

Mr Sheridan told the court that, once it was clear that Mr Cagney was not actually going to participate in the venture, he was forced to give away the jeans. Questioned by Mr Justice Charleton about how much money had been spent producing the jeans, Mr Sheridan said about £15,000.

The judge said this meant he should have returned £85,000 to Mr Cagney, and that therefore the €63,500 offered by Mr Sheridan to Mr Cagney in August 2004, before the court case began, was "a grossly deflated figure". Mr Sheridan alleges that he asked Mr Cagney to take back the money on several occasions but that he refused.

Judgment was reserved.