Jail for ex-FD of Anglo Irish bank

William McAteer, former finance director of Anglo Irish Bank, has been given a three-and-a-half year jail sentence for his part in a 7.2bn (£6.07bn) accounting fraud following the conclusion of the longest criminal trial in Irish legal history into three men accused of artificially shoring up the bank’s value at the height of the financial crisis.

Former Anglo executive John Bowe received a two-year sentence and former group chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) Denis Casey a term of two years and nine months. The judge at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court described their actions as ‘reprehensible’.

The three took part in a fraud which involved so-called circular transactions, designed to disguise the true state of the bank’s financial health with the aim of misleading investors, depositors and lenders between March and September 2008.