Sean FitzPatrick: Jury discharged in trial of former Anglo Irish boss

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Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick had pleaded not guilty to all 27 offences

The jury has been discharged in the trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick.

Mr FitzPatrick, 66, of Greystones, County Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty to 27 offences under the 1990 Companies Act.

He denied making misleading, false or deceptive statements to auditors and furnishing false information between 2002 and 2007.

A new trial date has been set for 5 October 2015.

The charges were brought by the director of public prosecutions after an investigation by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).

The end of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court comes after seven weeks of legal argument in the absence of the jury.

No evidence was ever opened to the jury as a legal issue raised on the opening day led almost immediately to a voir dire or "a trial within a trial".

A judge told the jury that the legal issues had been dealt with and as a result, the time frame for the trial had changed significantly.

Mr FitzPatrick was accused of failing to disclose to Anglo's auditors, Ernst and Young, the true amount of loans to him or people connected with him.

The prosecution claims he authorised arrangements to ensure that the balance of those loans would be reduced, or appear to be reduced, at the end of the bank's financial year.

It is alleged that he failed to tell the auditors about those arrangements and also about arrangements between Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society in connection with loans to him by Irish Nationwide.

He was also accused of producing financial statements about the value of loans to Anglo's directors which failed to include the true amounts outstanding by him to the bank.