Familiar scenes were played out at the offices of the Irish Mortgage and Finance Bureau in Limerick last week.
As rumours of difficulties at the firm circulated, clients arrived at its O'Connell Street offices to find out what had happened to their money. They found the offices unattended, and no answers to their questions.
About £300,000 and possibly more appears to be missing, and gardai are now studying the firm's books in attempting to trace the funds.
However, there was no sign of optimism yesterday that any significant sums would be uncovered. Mr Darragh Howley told The Irish Times last night that he and Mr Pat Foote had been the only directors of the firm. Mr Howley said he had resigned as a director last May.
"I was the first to alert the guards, months ago," he said.
Asked if there was £300,000 missing, he said: "I reckon that easily. I reckon there could even be more." Mr Howley said he was now running an auctioneering business in Ennis, Co Clare.
In recent years recurring cases of brokerages collapsing have led to calls for new laws to protect consumers. But new regulations, and repeated warnings to the public, appear to have only limited impact.
In 1991, the Mark Synnott brokerage in Dublin collapsed, owing £2.3 million. Last September, Mr Tony Taylor's brokerage firms in Dublin collapsed in similar circumstances, with at least 2.5 million of investors' funds missing.
The Irish Mortgage & Finance Bureau Ltd was registered at the Companies Office on October 10th, 1994. The firm, which operated from offices at 57 O'Connell Street in Limerick, did business with a number of mortgage lenders, according to banking sources.
As a mortgage intermediary, Mr Pat Foote, the principal promoter of the firm, specialised in arranging mortgages with financial institutions for his clients. The Bank of Ireland-owned ICS building society confirmed that it had had a relationship with Mr Foote and the Irish Mortgage and Finance Bureau.
A spokesman said this was terminated "some time ago" but he declined to say exactly when. "We have not had a professional relationship with that company for quite some time," he said.
Under the Consumer Credit Act 1995, mortgage brokers are required to apply for registration to the Director of Consumer Affairs and receive an authorisation to act as a mortgage broker. The office of the Director said yesterday that the Irish Mortgage and Finance Bureau had "not applied for registration or received an authorisation to conduct business as a mortgage broker".
The Irish Insurance Compliance Bureau (IICB) said that neither Mr Foote nor the company were registered. "He is not the director of any company registered with us," a spokesman said. But he said a life assurance company, IMFB Life and Pensions Ltd, which appeared to be a subsidiary, was listed with the IICB.
The Central Bank's Securities and Exchanges Supervision Department, which has the directory of investment brokers, said there was no record of the company there.