Case against former banker Brendan Mullin comes ‘down to dishonesty’, trial hears

The case against the former managing director of Bank of Ireland Private Bank “boils down to dishonesty”, prosecuting counsel has told the court.
Mr Brendan Mullin (61) of Stillorgan Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, a former Ireland rugby international, is accused of stealing over €570,000 from Bank of Ireland Private Bank, among other charges, between 2011 and 2013 when he was managing director. He denies all the charges against him.
In his closing speech on Thursday, Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, told the jury: “What the case boils down to is dishonesty”. He submitted to jurors that they do not have to consider the “complex world of banking” but only Mr Mullin’s behaviour at that time.
Mr McGinn asked the jury to use their common sense when looking at the elements which make up the offence of theft, including the taking of something without the consent of the owner and acting dishonestly.
Prosecuting counsel noted that repaying money does not mean a theft was not committed and suggested this is not relevant to the issues to be considered.
“Paying it back is not a defence “, he said, if the intention was always to deprive the owner of it.
“Was it a big mistake, a misunderstanding, or was he [Mr Mullin] doing it dishonestly? That’s what the case is about”.
Mr McGinn suggested Mr Mullin arrange for sums of money to be repaid to the private bank as if to say, “Nothing to see here. We are all gentlemen. Let’s not take this any further.”
He suggested a “common theme” through the evidence is that Mr Mullin benefited financially.
Mr McGinn said it is the prosecution’s case that Mr Mullin “was instrumental in taking the money” and was in a position to repay sums of money in “an attempt to make it go away”.
Referring to the payment by the bank of four invoices from McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors for work carried out either for Mr Mullin’s company, Quantum Investment Strategies or for him personally, Mr McGinn said funds went from the bank to McCann Fitzgerald for the benefit of Mr Mullin.
He said Mr Mullin told McCann Fitzgerald that the bank was looking after a portion of his legal fees and it acted on his instructions to change invoices and have them sent to the bank.
Mr McGinn noted when the issue came to light at the end of March 2013, Mr Mullin went to McCann Fitzgerald, and paid the invoices, then got them to refund the bank.
“If he was able to do that, why hadn’t he done when the first bill came in….Why go through the rigmarole unless there was something dishonest going on?” counsel said, suggesting an attempt was made “to get someone else to pay his fees for him”.
He suggested Mr Mullin offered a series of “excuses” that it was “all someone else’s fault” to various individuals in the private bank when the payment of the McCann Fitzgerald invoices came to light.
However, Mr McGinn suggested “none of these are consistent with what he was telling McCann Fitzgerald from the outset”.
In relation to four other invoices, one from Beechwood Partners accountants and three from Grant Thornton, paid by the bank, Mr McGinn noted Mr Mullin told gardaí the bank had agreed to pay these.
However, Mr McGinn said there was no evidence of this agreement, and these four invoices were for work done for Mr Mullin personally. “It was nothing to do with the bank”, Mr McGinn said, adding that there was no reason why the bank would pay this money.
Mr McGinn outlined to the jury that the prosecution says Mr Mullin stole €500,000 from Bank of Ireland during a breakdown in communication within various arms of the banking group, with the money ultimately being transferred to a company called Spice Holdings.
The court heard that €500,000 was repaid to Bank of Ireland Private Bank in July 2015 from Quantum.
Mr McGinn suggested that Mr Mullin was “central” to efforts to transfer €500,000 to Spice Holdings.
“Between July and December 2011, it appears Mr Mullin put considerable energy in getting those funds [€500,000] into the control of Spice Holdings,” counsel said.
The court heard that €500,000 was transferred in December 2011 to a Northern Trust account in the name of Spice Holdings.
Mr McGinn noted that an instruction sent in June 2012 to transfer the €500,000 to a Spice Holdings account held by the Royal Bank of Canada in Jersey was addressed to Mr Mullin, not a relationship manager.
He submitted that the private bank wrote to the Royal Bank of Canada seeking more information about the transaction, but “those enquiries came to nothing”.
“In spite of that, an amount of €500,000 was returned,” Mr McGinn said, adding this was not by Spice Holdings or Royal Bank of Canada but by Mr Mullin through Quantum.
He asked why Mr Mullin would pay €500,000 if he had nothing to do with the taking of the money, if it was a clerical error or someone else’s mistake. “Why would he do that if he hadn’t been responsible in the first place?”
Mr McGinn suggested the timing of the payment in July 2015 is “significant”. He submitted that by making this payment, Mr Mullin was hoping “in the same way he paid McCann Fitzgerald and told them to pay the money back if he got it back to the bank, maybe it would all go away”.
He contended this is the “final piece of the jigsaw to show Mr Mullin was all over this Spice Holdings transaction…if he hadn’t been, why would he repay it?”
Mr McGinn put it to the jury that Mr Mullin is the “only person common to all this” and that he was “very eager to blame others”. He asked them to consider if the witnesses were wrong or if Mr Mullin was dishonest.
Mr Mullin has pleaded not guilty to one count of stealing €500,000 from Bank of Ireland Private Bank, Mespil Road, Dublin 4 on December 16th, 2011, along with eight other counts of stealing various amounts of money amounting to just over €73,000 from the bank on various dates.
He has further pleaded not guilty to one count of deception and five counts of false accounting. All of the offences are alleged to have occurred between July 2011 and March 2013.
Mr Mullin was the managing director of Bank of Ireland Private Bank at the time of the alleged offences. He is also a former rugby international who played for Ireland.
The trial continues.