Former NIB director disqualified for 9 years

A former executive director of National Irish Bank, Barry Seymour, has been disqualified by the High Court 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.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy said Mr Seymour (67), with an address in England, was the single most senior and responsible employee in NIB between April 1994 and July 1996 and the inspectors who investigated the affairs of NIB found he knew, or should have known, about what the court considered to be "most serious" improper practices within the bank, including Dirt irregularities and widespread bogus non-resident accounts.

Given the senior position held by Mr Seymour and the serious nature of the irregularities which were allowed to continue during his tenure, the judge said the appropriate period of disqualification - before taking into account mitigating factors - was 12 years.

However, taking into account Mr Seymour's efforts to resolve issues of non-compliance within NIB, his age, his retirement and his non-involvement now in banking or any commercial activities, the judge said he would reduce the disqualification period to nine years.

The judge also noted Mr Seymour's courtesy, politeness and his frankness in his evidence at the hearing. While Mr Seymour had not contested the NIB inspectors' findings, certain matters were in issue which required extensive evidence on affidavit, he also noted.

He added that the disqualification order under Section 160 of the Com-panies Act is not a criminal sanction or a determination of liability for any losses, but "an indication of a lack of commercial probity relating to management of a company". The court was also mindful of the deterrent element of a disqualification period.

He was giving his 80-page reserved judgment on the application by the Director of Corporate Enforcement for the disqualification order against Mr Seymour, of Beaumond, Amersham, Bucks, who was executive director of NIB between April 1994 and July 1996.

The director's application followed the July 2004 findings of the inspectors who investigated the affairs of NIB and National Irish Bank Financial Services (NIBFS) over a 10-year period to 1998.

The inspectors concluded both NIB and NIBFS were involved in a number of unlawful and improper practices, including the opening and maintaining of bogus non-resident accounts which enabled customers to evade tax.

The inspectors found that responsibility for the improper practices that existed "rested with senior management" of the bank during the period of the inspectors' investigation.

In his decision, the judge cited the inspectors' findings in relation to Mr Seymour. He said the court considered as "most serious" the practices within NIB relating to the opening and maintaining of bogus and fictitiously-named accounts, which enabled customers to evade Revenue obligations, and the irregularities in the treatment of special savings accounts.

The inspectors had held Mr Seymour to be directly responsible for the continuation of such practices during his tenure, the judge said.

The fact that, after Mr Seymour left NIB, the bank made a substantial settlement with the Revenue relating to Dirt liabilities which were incurred in part during Mr Seymour's tenure, further highlighted the non-compliance by the bank and its directors, particularly its executive director, in discharging their statutory duties.

It was "remarkable" that Mr Seymour had told neither the audit committee or the NIB board the extent of the compliance failures and the bank's liability to the Revenue, the judge said.