A retired farmer has told the High Court he was not motivated by greed or revenge against National Irish Bank when he decided to contact RTE. Mr James Howard made contact in June 1998 about a CMI personal portfolio product which he said he had been sold.
Mr Howard claims Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn sold the product to him in 1993. He contacted RTE and reporter Charlie Bird in June 1998.
Mr Howard (69), who farmed in Co Meath but now lives in Drogheda, Co Louth, said he was annoyed with NIB over the situation he found himself in after receiving a letter from the Revenue Commissioners in spring 1998 in connection with his CMI investment.
He said the CMI investment was made after NIB had told him it would put him in touch with "the best financial adviser in the country". Ms Cooper-Flynn had subsequently contacted him.
"If she was the best financial adviser in the country, I would not like to see the worst."
Yesterday was the 15th day of the Co Mayo TD's action alleging libel against RTE, Mr Bird and Mr Howard. She claims she was libelled in a series of RTE broadcasts in summer 1998. The defence denies the claims.
Mr Howard said he had not issued proceedings against NIB in connection with the advice he had received from Ms Cooper-Flynn. Two years ago he made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in connection with undeclared income and had paid them £54,000 on September 1st, 1999.
Cross-examined by Mr Garret Cooney SC, for Ms Cooper-Flynn, Mr Howard said he knew she was denying ever having met him and selling him a CMI personal portfolio.
He agreed he had told neither his accountant nor the Revenue the truth about his income over the years. He agreed that by the time he transferred his account from Bank of Ireland, Swords, to the NIB's Balbriggan branch in 1987, a "well-oiled procedure for hiding his money" was in place.
He agreed that when he received a letter from the Revenue in April 1998 it was ominous, because they would have known he had undeclared income and he suspected they would be looking for back tax, interest and penalties.
He knew he was in serious potential trouble with the Revenue. If NIB did not share some of the responsibility, he had said he would go public. Mr Howard said he had been "led astray". That was why he had wanted the bank to pay some of the money he was eventually going to have to pay the Revenue. He agreed a letter from NIB a few weeks later effectively said the bank would not meet his request.
He was annoyed with NIB because of the bad advice Ms Cooper-Flynn had given him and the situation he found himself in. Had the bank reached some accommodation with him, he would never have contacted Mr Bird.
Mr Cooney put to him that, in contacting RTE and going public, he was motivated by frustration and greed that NIB had not paid him £50,000 towards his revenue settlement. Mr Howard said that was not true. What he had told RTE was the truth.
He denied his interview on RTE was a despicable assassination of Ms Cooper-Flynn's reputation: "I had nothing against Beverley Cooper-Flynn personally - it was the advice."
Mr Cooney suggested that, in the light of a Sunday Independent article reporting that NIB was claiming a bank employee other than Ms Cooper-Flynn had sold him the CMI portfolio, he had told the most damaging of lies about Ms Cooper-Flynn. Mr Howard replied: "No. I never told lies about Beverley Cooper-Flynn."
The hearing continues today.