Court told ex-NIB chief must take consequences of failures

THE DIRECTOR of Corporate Enforcement has argued before the Supreme Court that a former executive director of National Irish Bank must, as the then senior official within the bank, take the consequences for failures that occurred within the bank during his tenure.

Barry Seymour (72), Amersham, Bucks, England, executive director of NIB between 1994 and 1996, appealed against a High Court decision disqualifying him from involvement in the management of any company for nine years because of his “lack of a proper standard of conduct” relating to the affairs of the bank during that time.

The appeal concluded yesterday before a three-judge Supreme Court and Mrs Justice Susan Denham, presiding, said the court would reserve judgment.

Opposing the appeal, Brian Murray SC, for the director, said the purposes of disqualification orders under section 160 of the Companies Act include deterrence and promotion of good corporate governance and the court should uphold the making of the disqualification order.

While Mr Seymour had argued he was executive director for only two years and came from a different country, the fact was he took up that position and that responsibility and must take the consequences if he failed in a serious way to discharge that responsibility, counsel said.

The application for the disqualification order arose in circumstances where a licensed bank had permitted its customers to engage in “wholesale tax evasion”, Mr Murray added.

In closing arguments for Mr Seymour, Michael Collins SC said the High Court, in making the disqualification order, was required to consider if Mr Seymour represented a danger to the public. The High Court failed to address that “key factor”, counsel said.

Mr Collins also argued that, during his tenure, Mr Seymour acted promptly to address problems about bogus non-resident accounts within the bank and had effectively eradicated the problem during his tenure.

It was also incorrect to find Mr Seymour had failed to account to the Revenue for tax retrospectively due as a result of non-payment of Dirt on certain NIB accounts, counsel said. What was not addressed by anyone was the matter of interest and penalties as a result of that non-payment.

In his High Court decision disqualifying Mr Seymour, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy said Mr Seymour was the single most senior and responsible employee in NIB between April 1994 and July 1996.

The judge said the inspectors who investigated the affairs of NIB found Mr Seymour knew, or should have known, about what the court considered to be “most serious” improper practices within the Bank. Given the senior position held by Mr Seymour and the serious nature of the irregularities that were allowed continue during his tenure, the judge said the appropriate period of disqualification was 12 years.

Taking into account Mr Seymour’s efforts to resolve issues of non-compliance within NIB, his age and his retirement, he reduced that period to nine years.