A WOMAN who sued Allied Irish Banks after her €100,000 allegedly guaranteed investment dropped in value to €40,000 has settled her High Court action.
Doreen Rock (63), Woodside, Ballinora, Waterfall, Cork, had claimed AIB told her her investment was guaranteed when she agreed to put the €100,000 into a five-year Hibernian Aviva “spectrum bond”, a property-investment scheme backed by a number of “blue-chip” businesses, including AIB, Bank of Ireland and HMV.
The investment made €9,000 in its first year but is now worth just €40,000, the court heard.
Ms Rock, a mother of five, told the court that when she agreed to the investment in September 2006 she made it clear to an AIB financial adviser that the capital sum must be protected.
She said the bank did not carry out dealings with her in accordance with normal practice and banking standards and failed to adhere to her instructions.
The bank denied the claims.
Yesterday, counsel for Ms Rock told Mr Justice John McMenamin the matter had been resolved and the case could be dismissed with no order on costs.
Ms Rock claimed the bank represented to her the return on her investment would be greater than if she left the money in a low-yield deposit account. She also alleged she was subject to undue influence, induced to invest in the bond when the bank knew she had no prior investment experience.
She had claimed damages for breach of fiduciary duty or, alternatively, a declaration that the investment agreement was invalid.
The court heard she and her husband, Liam Rock, had €200,000 from the sale of a house in 2005. That money was on deposit with AIB, with which the couple had banked since 1974. Ms Rock claimed when she went to the AIB’s Bishopstown branch, tellers asked regularly if she was getting the best return on the money.
While she initially said her money was “safe where it is”, she eventually agreed to meet with one of the bank’s financial advisers and signed up for the investment, it was claimed.