A FORMER senior manager with National Irish Bank has been disqualified for four years from involvement in management of a company on grounds of unfitness arising from the findings of the investigation by court-appointed inspectors into the 1990s tax evasion scandal at the bank.
At the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy decided disqualification in the case of Patrick Byrne (49), St Helen's Road, Booterstown, Co Dublin, should be for four years. He placed a stay on his order in the event of an appeal to the Supreme Court.
In a judgment delivered earlier this year, Mr Justice Murphy found that Mr Byrne, head of finance and strategy with NIB from 1994 to 1998, had "displayed a lack of commercial probity" in discharging his responsibilities to the bank and its creditors, including the Revenue Commissioners.
Yesterday, the judge rejected arguments by Michael Collins SC, for Mr Byrne, that no period of disqualification should be imposed. Counsel said no finding of dishonesty or negligence had been made against his client and Mr Byrne had suffered as a result of the proceedings.
The disqualification order, under Section 160 of the Companies Act, was one of a number sought by the Director of Corporate Enforcement arising from the NIB investigation.
The inspectors concluded in 2004 that NIB and NIBFS were involved in a number of improper practices, and a number of members of senior management bore responsibility for some of these.
They also concluded that senior management figures failed to deal decisively with bogus non-resident accounts, improper charging of interest, and CMI policies.
Previously, Frank Brennan, of Ardglas, Dundrum, Dublin, was disqualified for six years; Nigel D'Arcy, of Castledillon, Straffan, Co Kildare, consented to being disqualified for 10 years, and Barry Seymour, former executive director of NIB from April 1994 to July 1996, was disqualified for nine years.
Michael Keane (52), Corr Castle, Howth, Co Dublin, was disqualified for three years.
Disqualification proceedings are pending against former NIB chief executive Jim Lacey. A hearing date for that action has provisionally been agreed for April 2009.
