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16th October 2024
12:53pm BST
Brendan Mullin, a former professional rugby player who made 55 appearances for Ireland, is currently in court charged with stealing over €500,000 from Bank of Ireland Private Banking.
Mr Mullin denies all 15 charges against him, which are alleged to have occurred between July 2011 and March 2013 when he was the bank's managing director.
The trial got underway at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday with a jury of nine men and three women.
Last week, twelve jury members who had originally been selected were discharged after one of the jurors said they had come to the realisation that they know a relative of Mr Mullin.
In his opening address, the prosecution told the jury that this was a case of financial dishonesty involving charges of theft, deception and false accounting.
Setting out the evidence in the case, prosecuting barrister Dominic McGinn said eight of the charges Mr Mullin is facing relate to payments made by BOI Private Banking - a separate entity within the bank group that dealt with investments and services for "high net-worth" customers - to a law firm named McCann Fitzgerald.
The jury was told that this firm of solicitors had done some work for Quantum Investment Strategies, a company in which the former rugby player was a director.
Quantum Investment Strategies needed legal advice and it engaged the services of McCann Fitzgerald, which later sent invoices for the work to Quantum Investment Strategies.
The jurors were told the bills were paid by the bank.
Mr McGinn said it is alleged by the prosecution that Mr Mullin submitted the invoices and, as the Managing Director, he was able to authorise the payments.
The jury was told there are a pair of charges for each of the four transactions. Four counts relate to false accounting charges and four relate to theft charges.
Mr McGinn said the invoices were originally issued in Mr Mullin's own name and sent to his home address.
He said it was the prosecution's case that Mr Mullin had asked McCann Fitzgerald to change the name and address on the invoices to Bank of Ireland Private Banking, which amounted to false accounting.
The jury was told by the prosecution that Mr Mullin had "incorrectly authorised the payments" and that amounted to theft.
"They should have been paid by Quantum or Mr Mullin," Mr McGinn said. "But the bank ended up paying for them."
The main transfer of money highlighted by the prosecution team was that of a €500,000 sum that was sent from Bank of Ireland Private Banking to a company called Spice Holdings, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Mr McGinn said it related to life insurance policies provided by New Ireland Assurance, another arm of Bank of Ireland, which had been sold to clients.
While Mr Mullin accepted that he had organised the payment of the €500,000 through his own company Quantum Investment Strategies, the jury was told that he gave an explanation as to why that transfer came about.
Towards the end of his address to the jury, Mr McGinn said that while a lot of the details in the case "may seem a little complicated," the case itself really isn't that complex.
He told the jurors they need to focus on whether there is dishonesty going on or whether there was a misunderstanding.
Born in Israel in October, 1963, Brendan Mullin grew up in Dublin and went to school at Blackrock College.
A Leinster and Ireland schoolboy international, Mullin studied law at Trinity College Dublin and also earned Rugby blues whilst studying at Oxford University.
He earned 55 caps playing as a centre for Ireland, scoring 17 tries and 1 conversion - 72 points in aggregate.
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