Trial judge Lord Justice McCollum yesterday described the collapse of International Investments as a "major tragedy". He added that while depositors had been "robbed of their substantial investments", that was not the case against Ross.

He said Ross had been prepared to deceive, but not to cheat and his intention was "to shore up" a firm in financial distress "in order to buy time" in the hope that investments would come through.

He was sentencing Ross on the basis that he had come to Stormont Hotel in Belfast in December 1983 to take part in "a sales push", inviting investors to put money into IIL, at a time when he knew, or was reckless about the firm's true "perilous financial position".

Lord Justice McCollum said the firm's collapse was due to mismanagement, but others must share in the blame, in particular the authorities in Gibraltar who had shown "a strange lack of control" of International's affairs.

He added that as far as members of the accountancy profession were concerned, they too had nothing to be proud of in their duty to protect the public.

Turning to the liquidation of IIL, the judge said those involved had nothing to be proud of either, although the original liquidator Mr Timothy Revell was blameless and while Mr James Galliano, who replaced him, was an honest man, he "was unable to fully supervise events in Ireland", and those acting for him in Dublin may not have served him well.

Ross has always denied knowing of IIL's impending financial problems which finally led to the company going into liquidation in June 1984 owing more than £7 million (€8.9 million) to investors.

Ross said as far as he was concerned "everything was running smoothly" and that before the meeting he had been given "a glowing report" about IIL's operations.

His defence counsel, Mr Arthur Harvey QC, said that when it came to the liquidation "Ross is convinced and remains convinced to this day" that if all of the assets of International had been properly recovered, investors would have got their money back.

Mr Harvey said Ross, originally from Dunmanway, west Cork, had suffered greatly already and deserved that his case be treated as an exceptional one.

He added that unlike others involved in IIL, Ross had lost everything, finally being declared a bankrupt in the US.

Mr Harvey said the stress Ross came under 15 years after the collaspe of IIL had "shattered the peace of a life he was trying to pickup", and although a naturalised citizen of the US, that citizenship was now in doubt.