Judge criticises AIB's Cahir branch for inaction on crime cash deposit

The AIB branch in Cahir, Co Tipperary, has been strongly criticised by a judge at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for failing to fulfil its obligations under money-laundering legislation.

Judge Patrick Moran criticised the AIB branch yesterday when he sentenced a Swiss woman, Maria Bernadette Jehle (47), to five years' imprisonment for money-laundering.

He said AIB must have been suspicious when more than £200,000 arrived into the woman's accounts from Switzerland, but the bank had failed to report the matter to its money-laundering section.

Last night a spokeswoman for the AIB group said she was not aware of any internal inquiry by the bank into the handling of the money by its Cahir branch. She had not known that any such matters concerning the bank had arisen during the trial, or the investigation which preceded it.

The trial of Jehle was the first of its kind under the money-laundering law. It was told of accounts opened at AIB branches in Cobh, Co Cork, and Cahir, Co Tipperary, and at the TSB in Midleton, Co Cork. Judge Moran praised the TSB branch for reporting its transaction. Jehle, of The Priory, Cobh, Co Cork, was found guilty on August 20th and remanded in custody.

Delivering sentence Judge Moran said: "The criminal classes of Europe must know that if they deposit the proceeds of crime here they will be treated severely."

He said that when £209,400 in deutschmarks arrived in Jehle's account from Switzerland in August 1996, the bank must have been suspicious. However, AIB had only been "concerned with the debt that had accumulated on Jehle's account in the bank, not with the legislation".

The bank took £169,000, owed by Jehle on a loan. "I hope, in the future, the bank will have more regard for the legislation," he said and praised the TSB branch in Midleton for reporting to its money-laundering section when £90,300 in French francs was deposited in Jehle's account there in May last year.

"Only for the action of the TSB in Midleton, this case may never have come to light," the judge said.

Throughout the trial Jehle protested her innocence and yesterday she appeared in court wearing a black top with red letters proclaiming: "I'm not guilty". Judge Moran said he was "somewhat concerned" by this, as it almost amounted to contempt of the jury and the court. After an adjournment she reappeared wearing a plain navy top.