Dublin businessman Sam Field-Corbett has been disqualified by the High Court from acting as a company director or manager for three years as a result of his close involvement in the Ansbacher tax-evasion scheme.
Field-Corbett (65) was an Ansbacher client and was linked to the late Des Traynor, the close associate of the late Charles Haughey who was the prime figure behind the Ansbacher scheme. The ruling yesterday by Ms Justice Mary Finlay-Geoghegan came more than four years after the publication of the official report into the affair by a High Court inspectorate.
The judge postponed the start of Field-Corbett's disqualification for four weeks to enable him to make "appropriate arrangements" at companies in which he is currently involved. This postponement was requested by counsel for the businessman.
The judge noted Field-Corbett's involvement in Hamilton Ross, a company with close connections to the Ansbacher scheme, and determined that his conduct made him unfit to be involved in the management of a company for three years. But for mitigating factors advanced by Field-Corbett's counsel, the judge indicated the appropriate disqualification period would have been six years.
Field-Corbett is the second central figure to receive a disqualification arising from the High Court investigation into the Ansbacher affair. Pádraig Collery, who helped run the scheme from the registered office of CRH, was disqualified for nine years last March.
A former Haughey Boland employee, Field-Corbett specialised in secretarial services such as establishing companies, presenting documents to the Companies Office and keeping shareholdings on behalf of unidentified clients.
In 1973 he set up his own secretarial services company, Management Investment Services Ltd (MIS). Many of the companies linked to the Ansbacher deposits availed of secretarial services from MIS.
The ruling in Field-Corbett's case was welcomed yesterday by Paul Appleby, the director of corporate enforcement.
Mr Appleby said his office will continue to work to create the conditions for good corporate compliance.
