An insurance agent who defrauded €2.3 million by getting commissions on bogus pension schemes has been remanded in custody pending sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Noel Fitzpatrick (42) set up Terrintech Ireland as a bogus company and was paid the €2.3 million in commissions from three insurance companies after acting as an intermediary in setting up pension schemes on behalf of the company's non-existent staff.

Fitzpatrick, of St Gabriels, Johnstown Road, Cabinteely, pleaded guilty to seven sample charges of falsely pretending various named people were applicants for pension schemes at Canada Life Ireland, Friends First Ireland and New Ireland Assurance on dates between July 2000 and July 2001.

He also pleaded guilty to securing a IR£400,000 loan in July 2001 from Anglo Irish Bank by falsely pretending he owned three properties and to providing a false document in the name of Terrintech Ireland to the Company Registration Office on March 3rd, 2002.

Insp Denis Heneghan told Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that Fitzpatrick had to pay the monthly pension contributions to the companies, "to avoid questions being asked".

As a result, his overall profit from the bogus scheme was €1.6 million.

He defrauded €336,700 from Canada Life, €479,873 from New Ireland and €1,505,374 from Friends First after securing the commission from bogus applications for pension schemes, by providing a forged "letter of undertaking" from a solicitor stating that he owned three properties.

Fitzpatrick supplied Anglo Irish Bank with a fake solicitor's letter forged by him to secure the IR£400,000 bridging loan which he used to pay off a IR£290,000 Allied Irish Bank loan.

Insp Heneghan told Mr McGinn that Fitzpatrick spent all his profit by September 2002 on jewellery, cars, golf and health club fees, furniture and home improvements, his mortgage and bank loans, and setting up two new businesses.

Insp Heneghan agreed with Patrick Gageby SC (with Sean Guerin BL) defending, that Fitzpatrick was not really solvent after borrowing the entire funds to buy a €630,000 house in Cabinteely in June 2000.

He tried to defer this debt and others that had accumulated by getting the loan from Anglo Irish Bank and then covering the repayments for this loan by defrauding the three insurance companies.

Insp Heneghan further agreed that Fitzpatrick spent his profit "on incredibly expensive cars and on a lifestyle that there was no rational basis for".

When he could no longer afford to pay the pension contributions on the bogus schemes, the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority was contacted in September 2002 and the Garda Síochána were called in to investigate.

Mr Gageby told Judge Katherine Delahunt that the only thing he could say in his client's favour was that the breach of trust was not between Fitzpatrick and his clients but between him and the financial institutions, who he acknowledged had a very significant shortfall of €1.6 million.