The managing director of Goodbody Stockbrokers has said his evidence in the DCC insider trading trial has not been influenced by Jim Flavin, the chief executive of DCC, or anyone else.

Roy Barrett told the High Court yesterday he had taken no side in the dispute between Fyffes and DCC regarding the €106 million sale of the DCC stake in Fyffes in February 2000.

In his evidence on Tuesday, Mr Barrett said that he had not negotiated the transaction with Mr Flavin, supporting Mr Flavin's earlier evidence to the court.

Yesterday, Mr Barrett agreed he had spoken with DCC chief executive Mr Flavin on several occasions in the past two years about matters relating to the sales. He said Mr Flavin and others had views on what had happened. However, what Mr Flavin or anybody else said was "irrelevant to me", Mr Barrett said. He was in court to give his own recollection of his involvement in the share sales.

He agreed one issue Mr Flavin would have discussed with him in phone calls was Lotus Green Limited, a Dutch-registered subsidiary of DCC to which beneficial ownership of the Fyffes stake was transferred for tax reasons in 1995. He agreed also Mr Flavin had insisted bids for the shares were accepted by Lotus.

Mr Barrett agreed that his own statement to the court said that a bid on February 3rd, 2000 for the first tranche of the shares "was accepted by Lotus Green Limited".

Mr Barrett agreed it was not of his own knowledge that the offer was accepted by Lotus. That assertion in his statement arose from a "logical supposition" arising from the fact that he had been referred to Lotus on February 8th and 14th, 2000, when he made bids for the rest of the shares. He presumed the process of going to Lotus also occurred on February 3rd. He had also read that Ronan Godfrey of Davy Stockbrokers had phoned Tom Diepenhorst of Lotus in relation to the first share sale.

Mr Barrett said a statement issued by Fyffes to the Irish Stock Exchange on February 4th, 2000, also said that Lotus disposed of the shares. From that, he had concluded Lotus had accepted a bid. He added that, if Lotus was the beneficial owner of the shares, no one else could accept a bid. He agreed no one else could accept a bid unless Lotus had given authority for that.

Asked why he phoned Mr Flavin on February 14th, 2000 to make a bid for the third tranche of the Fyffes shareholding when he had been told by Mr Flavin on February 8th that the appropriate person to contact was Mr Diepenhorst of Lotus, Mr Barrett said he had phoned Mr Flavin because "it worked" and had "proved effective". When he had spoken to Mr Flavin on February 3rd, "the transaction happened". He again spoke to Mr Flavin on February 8th and "the transaction happened".

"So we had to talk to Tom Diepenhorst, that is absolutely fine. I took no view as to what that meant or what that process meant. But I felt absolutely comfortable going back on the 14th."

Mr Barrett said his view, "rightly or wrongly", was that Mr Flavin was a strong and "pretty forceful" chief executive who would have had an involvement in "anything of any import in DCC".

He was being cross-examined on the 62nd day of proceedings by Fyffes alleging insider dealing in connection with the sale of the DCC stake in Fyffes over three days - February 3rd, 8th and 14th - in 2000. The action is against DCC, Mr Flavin and two DCC subsidiaries - S&L Investments Limited and Lotus Green, who deny the claims, and plead the share sales were properly organised by Lotus with Mr Flavin acting as a "conduit".

Yesterday, Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for Fyffes, suggested to Mr Barrett that he and Kyran McLaughlin of Davy stockbrokers could not have arrived at a price of €3.20 a share for the first share sale unless they were given an indication beforehand that that price would be acceptable to Mr Flavin and DCC.

Mr Barrett said he had no clear recall of how the price was arrived at. His view was that, if he had had a conversation regarding €3.20, he had it with Mr McLaughlin on February 3rd, 2000.

Mr Gallagher suggested that a price could not have been arrived at without some indication from Mr Flavin that a bid at that figure might succeed. Mr Barrett said his view was there there was going to be a transaction and they would not have gone with the figure of €3.20 unless they had confidence it would succeed.

He agreed the €3.20 figure may have been the subject of a prior discussion between Mr Flavin and someone but he could not recall any discussion with Mr Flavin or DCC on the matter.

He agreed a transcript of a phone conversation between brokers Ronan Godfrey of Davy and Bruce Ashmore of Goodbody on February 3rd, 2000 included a reference to Mr Godfrey saying that Mr Flavin had mentioned the €3.20 figure. That was clearly what Mr Godfrey had said, Mr Barrett said.

Mr Gallagher said Mr Godfrey had, "admittedly in jocose terms", referred in a phone call to Mr Ashmore on February 3rd to Mr Barrett having "caved in" on commission with "Jim". Mr Barrett said that conversation between the brokers was "the ends-of-a-deal type banter". In his view, it was "meaningless waffle".

Mr Barrett said he had no idea of the nature of conversations between Mr Flavin and Davy Stockbrokers and his only concern on February 3rd was to get Goodbody in on the transaction.

He had had at least six phone conversations with Mr Flavin on February 3rd and ongoing conversations after that date up to and including the conversations of February 8th and 14th when he made bids for the shares.

He recalled there was genuine uncertainty in Mr Flavin's mind as to where the Fyffes share price was going to at that time. They had conversations about where the price would go but not in the context of a bid being made by Mr Barrett or of Mr Flavin accepting any bid.

When he had bid €3.60 on the 8th and €3.90 on the 14th, price was not a significant issue and was not discussed.

Later yesterday, Morgan Crowe, non-executive deputy chairman of DCC Healthcare, said Mr Flavin took great care over the years to ensure the DCC board was properly advised of its legal and regulatory responsibilities on any matters and was meticulous about ensuring proper procedures were followed.

He recalled Mr Flavin informing him in late January/early February 2000 of approaches seeking to purchase DCC's interest in Fyffes. Mr Flavin had said the decision on any offer "was a matter for the Dutch".

In cross-examination, Mr Crowe rejected as "absurd" a suggestion by Paul Sreenan SC, for Fyffes, that DCC board minutes and other documents implied the entire DCC board appeared to have had "a lapse of memory" in 1998 about the Fyffes shareholding having been transferred to Lotus Green in 1995 and had had to be reminded about matters relating to Lotus.

The case continues today before Ms Justice Laffoy.