Former Anglo-Irish chief Drumm jailed for six years for conspiracy to defraud
A FORMER banker who led a bust institution which contributed to the collapse of the Irish economy has been sentenced to six years in prison.
David Drumm (51) was convicted earlier this month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting after arranging dishonest and fraudulent multibillion-euro transfers to boost the books of the failed bank Anglo-Irish in the months before it imploded in 2008.
Judge Karen O’Connor said Drumm will be given credit for the five and a half months he served in custody in the United States during his extradition to Ireland in 2015.
She said Drumm was being sentenced for the two offences he had been convicted of, and not for Ireland’s financial collapse.
“This court is not sentencing Mr Drumm for causing the financial crisis. Nor is this court sentencing Mr Drumm for the recession which occurred,” she told the court.
“This offending did not cause Anglo-Irish Bank to collapse. This court will sentence Mr Drumm only for the two specific offences for which he has been convicted.”
She went on to tell the court she was of the view that eight years’ imprisonment was the “ap- propriate headline figure”.
But the judge said: “Taking into consideration the mitigating factors, this court is going to impose a sentence of six years’ imprisonment in relation to counts one and two.”
Drumm was convicted in connection with the €7.2bn (£6.3bn) fraud following a trial that lasted more than 80 days. He was found guilty of two offences, conspiracy to defraud contrary to common law and false accounting contrary to section 10 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
The judge said the second offence flowed from the first, and that the jury rejected submissions made on behalf of Drumm and convicted him unanimously.
“He was the chief executive officer at the time, a member of the board of and therefore in a position of trust in relation to the bank, its depositors, investors and lenders and also potential depositors, investors and lenders.”
She added: “The intention was to create the false and misleading impression that Anglo Irish Bank was stronger or in a healthier position than it actually was as a result of €7.2bn in corporate deposits i.e. deposits from a nonbank entity.”
And she told the court: “He authorised the transactions, was at the helm of the bank, and clearly extremely ‘hands-on’ in his position in the bank.”