Allied Irish Bank executives were branded “greedy rats” who “stole” millions of pounds worth of property assets from an alleged fraudster, a London court heard yesterday.

Achilleas Kallakis made the astonishing claims against the bank while being cross-examined during his retrial at Southwark Crown Court in London.

Mr Kallakis and co-defendant Alexander Williams are accused of defrauding AIB out of £740 million in property loans on the back of fake guarantees. Both deny the charges.

However, yesterday Mr Kallakis launched a broadside against AIB bosses after they demanded £314 million in 24 hours and claimed he had taken action to stop them from “stealing” shares.

He claimed he told his shipping magnate uncle Lou Kollakis to withdraw shares from a firm called Oregon Finance Corporation in autumn 2008, shortly before AIB was offered an Oregon guarantee.

Mr Kallakis also claimed he had asked his uncle to take back the shares in a move to stop any attempt by AIB bosses “extorting” the money.

He told jurors: “When I came to this trial I found out the bank had decided to take the assets in June.

“These greedy rats stole our assets from us. They manipulated the situation and they took the assets knowing that they were not going to pay us what we were rightly due.”

Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, said: “On September 22nd Uncle Lou had gotten his bearer shares back. Is it the case that Uncle Lou and you had put your heads together to get his assets out of Oregon so that you would not be liable?”

Mr Kallakis answered: “That is exactly what happened.” He added: “I said to my uncle take back the bearer shares because from what we are hearing so far Oregon has put itself via the trust into a very precarious position here.”

Mr Temple then asked: “Did you consider that an honest course of conduct?”

Mr Kallakis replied: “Totally honest course of conduct.”

Asked if this meant that Oregon would be left with “no assets at all,” Mr Kallakis replied: “Yes, that was the plan.”

He continued: “We took the bearer shares out of Oregon.

“Why would we leave billions of dollars of shares in a corporation that a bank was attacking and trying to extort money from?”

Mr Kallakis continued to rail against AIB, claiming the agreement had remained “until such time as AIB directly accused us of fraud and demanded £300 million”.

Mr Kallakis denied Mr Temple’s suggestion that his claims about being given bearer shares by his uncle were “a fiction” and a “total fabrication.”

“It was the heart and cornerstone of the business,” he answered.

This came despite questions from Mr Temple about why there was documentation showing evidence of an apparent £2 million loan from Lou Kollakis, but none about the bearer shares.

The trial continues.