Ex-NIB manager opposes order

A retired regional manager with National Irish Bank is opposing a High Court bid by the director of corporate enforcement for an order restraining him from involvement in the management of any company.

The application relating to Kevin Curran, Avondale Court, Blackrock, Co Dublin, is one of nine brought by the director against various NIB executives on the basis of the findings of inspectors Tom Grace and John Blayney in their July 2004 report following their investigation into the tax evasion scandal of the 1990s in NIB.

Maurice Collins SC, for the director, told Mr Justice Roderick Murphy yesterday he was making the case that Mr Curran, as a "senior manager" in NIB, was aware of various improper practices which prevailed within NIB and was, with others, responsible for the continuation of those practices in that he failed to take appropriate or adequate action to stop them.

Among a series of claims, it is alleged Mr Curran had failed to ensure that NIB branch managers in the branches for which he was responsible had complied with proper procedures related to the opening and maintaining of non-resident accounts and other matters. It is also claimed Mr Curran failed to ensure that branch managers complied with the bank's legal responsibilities under the Finance Act 1986, which had introduced the deposit interest retention tax (Dirt) regime.

It is also alleged that senior managers of NIB, including Mr Curran, were aware or should have been aware of the use within NIB branches of clerical medical insurance (CMI) policies to "regularise" certain bank accounts which were "sensitive" or contained "hot money".

The proceedings have been brought under Section 160 of the Companies Act 1990. Similar restraining-order applications have been brought against eight other former NIB executives or officials arising from the findings.