The former chief executive of Aer Lingus Holidays said he was surprised to learn in court that the company had paid for furniture and redecorations for an apartment block he believed it did not own.
Mr Malachi Faughnan denies any knowledge of Los Hibiscos, an apartment block in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, which is at the centre of a fraud trial.
Mr Faughnan was being re-examined by Mr Erwan Mill Arden SC on the 8th day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of Mr Peter Keely, of Carrig Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, and Mr Desmond P. Flynn, of Tritonville Avenue, Sandymount, Dublin, who have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud.
Mr Keely and Mr Flynn deny conspiring together and with Mr Peter Noone, former financial controller of the company, on dates from March 1987 to November 1988 to defraud Aer Lingus Holidays by misappropriating funds to purchase part of the Los Hibiscos apartment complex.
Mr Faughnan told the court he had never heard of the apartment block before the trial.
Mr Mill Arden showed the court a telex dated July 3rd, 1989, sent by a local agent in Lanzarote to Mr Vincent McKeogh, the reservations manager.
A couple staying in La Penita, an Aer Lingus Holidays apartment block, had complained of cockroaches in their room. The agent also noted the exterior walls of the building needed redecoration and the pool was "shabby". The local agent did not know the daily price in the Los Hibiscos apartment block which could be used as alternative accommodation.
Judge O'Connor said Mr Faughnan should not have to speculate on the the fact that Los Hibiscos was considered separately to a known Aer Lingus Holidays apartment block.
Mr Faughnan was shown a 1989 holiday brochure for Sunbound which included the Los Hibiscos apartments. Mr Faughnan said that there was no significance in the fact that the Los Hibiscos advertisement was smaller than others owned by Aer Lingus Holidays.
Mr Faughnan was also shown an invoice for furniture from a supplier in Lanzarote sent to Sunbound. Asked if he concluded that Aer Lingus Holidays owned Los Hibiscos from the document, he said that if the company did not own the apartment block, it surprised him they were paying for furniture to be supplied to it.
Mr Faughnan said one of the accused men, Mr Noone, went to Lanzarote "fairly often" in connection with Aer Lingus Holidays business. Invoices sent to Aer Lingus Holidays were normally dealt with by Mr Noone.
The trial continues before Judge O'Connor and a jury.