DCC board:Despite the Supreme Court upholding an appeal against the High Court's decision, Jim Flavin has his board's backing, writes Colm Keena

The board of DCC said yesterday that Jim Flavin continues to have its "unanimous support", despite the Supreme Court upholding an appeal against an earlier High Court case clearing him of insider trading.

During the original case and subsequent appeal, he held two key positions in his evidence that have since both been rejected.

One position was that he had not dealt in the share sales at issue. The shares were technically owned by a Dutch-based subsidiary, Lotus Green, as part of a tax structure, but in order for DCC to be able to avoid capital gains tax on any profits from the shares, DCC's head office could not control the shares.

Ms Justice Laffoy, in her original ruling in the High Court, referred to the "absurdity" of the position adopted by Mr Flavin and DCC in this regard.

She said that Mr Flavin "professed to have no authority to act as agent on behalf of Lotus Green. However, the reality is that he assumed authority to act exclusively in the negotiations leading to the sales.

"In fact, he assumed total control on the sell side and the prospective buyers did not have any access to any other decision-maker, if there was any. I infer from the evidence that there was none."

Despite this ruling, there has been no public indication of a move by the Revenue to raise tax on the €86 million profit made by DCC.

As well as this position in relation to Lotus Green, Mr Flavin also strongly argued that the information he possessed was not price-sensitive.

The High Court accepted this, but five judges of the Supreme Court have now ruled that it was price-sensitive.

The share sale and Mr Flavin's role in it, were the subject some time ago of Garda inquiries and contact with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

It is understood nothing has been heard by Mr Flavin on that front for some time now. The outcome of the High Court hearing - a civil case taken by Fyffes - indicated that the matter was unlikely to be taken any further. Whether the Supreme Court's ruling will change matters, is not known.

In a separate criminal insider dealing case in 2002, where the defendant was found not guilty, the judge ruled that criminal intent needed to be shown, in order for a conviction to be secured.

Mr Flavin has always held that he did not believe the information he had in his possession was price-sensitive.

Also Ms Justice Laffoy, in her ruling, said she accepted that Mr Flavin's motive in selling the shares, was to avail of the high prices that Fyffes shares were getting at the time, on the back of dotcom mania and Fyffes' worldoffruit.com venture.

Mr Flavin (64) founded DCC in 1976 and is a hugely experienced senior figure in the Irish business community.

In its preliminary results for the year to end March 2007, released in May of this year, the group said its profits before tax were €161.8 million, an increase of 16.6 per cent on the previous year.

The executive members of the DCC board are Tommy Breen and Fergal O'Dwyer.

The non-executive directors are: Tony Barry; Róisín Brennan; Michael Buckley; Paddy Gallagher, Maurice Keane and Bernard Somers.