LAST UPDATE | 25 Nov

FORMER RUGBY INTERNATIONAL Brendan Mullin, who stole hundreds of thousands of euro from Bank of Ireland Private Bank when he was its managing director, has been jailed for three years.

Mullin (61) was earlier this month found guilty of stealing just over €567,000 from the bank on dates between 2011 and 2013, after the jury returned guilty verdicts in 12 of the 14 charges against him following a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial.

The three-week trial heard allegations Mullin, of Stillorgan Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, was acting dishonestly when he arranged for sums of money to be paid by the private bank to McCann Fitzgerald solicitors, Beechwood accountants and Grant Thornton for work that had been done either for him personally or for his firm Quantum Investment Strategies.

The prosecution further alleged that Mullin stole €500,000 from Bank of Ireland during a breakdown in communication within various arms of the banking group, with the money ultimately being transferred to a company called Spice Holdings, registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The court heard Spice Holdings was a client that Mullin had brought into the bank.

Sentencing him today, Judge Martin Nolan said Mullin was in “a position of trust and a position of power” when he stole from the bank. “He was able to sway other parties to do his will,” the judge said.

The judge noted no motive was advanced by Mullin, but he could only infer Mullin was “somewhat desperate for funds and embarked on this endeavour to obtain money”.

He took into account a number of mitigating factors, including what the defence termed as the “exceptional factor” that Bank of Ireland Private Bank was fully repaid the funds and not at a loss. The judge also noted there was a significant delay in bringing the case.

The court heard Mullin now accepts the verdicts of the jury and Judge Nolan accepted he is “remorseful and sorry for what he did”. But he noted a custodial sentence was inevitable and he handed down a jail term of three years.

Mullin put his head down when the sentence was handed down.

Mullin was acquitted of the two charges relating to Beechwood Partners, including the alleged theft of €6,150 from the private bank for work carried out privately for Mullin and a false accounting charge related to the same

The jury was also directed by the trial judge to return a verdict of not guilty on a further count of deception alleging Mullin induced two bank workers to sign a payment authorisation letter.

At Mullin’s sentence hearing today, Brendan Grehan SC, defending, told the court that Mullin suffered a “personal crisis” when the events of 2013 led to him resigning from the bank, and that he suffered another crisis when he was charged in 2021.

Mr Grehan said it was a “stand-out factor” of the case that all the money had been repaid before the garda investigation had commenced and long before the matter came to court.

“It is a singular set of events that occurred in the context of somebody who is now 61 years of age, who has lived a good life and made positive contributions to this country,” Mr Grehan said.

The court heard Mullin, who represented the country in rugby in the 1980s and 1990s, has no previous convictions and no outstanding investigations against him.

Mr Grehan said the consequences of his offending were profound for Mullin, who suffered a fall from grace. He said Mullin had to deal with this issue twice – once when it first emerged and again when the investigation became public.

“Mr Mullin at this stage accepts the jury verdict,” Mr Grehan said, adding this was a matter of “some significance” for the court.

He said Mullin was prepared to carry out community service if that was a possibility.

Earlier, Detective Sergeant Sean O’Riordan gave evidence of Mullin’s offending. The court heard that in relation to the McCann Fitzgerald payments, Mullin asked the solicitors to redirect the invoices from his own personal address to the private bank.

The court heard he told his superiors that the invoices had been mistakenly put in a bundle of client invoices and paid in error.

In relation to the Spice Holdings transfer, the court heard that Bank of Ireland Private Bank and New Ireland – both arms of the bank’s Wealth Management Division – agreed to equally split a €1 million refund to customers relating to a pay-out of life assurance claims, with the court hearing there was a communications breakdown in relation to this.

The trial heard that €500,000 was transferred by New Ireland into a Northern Trust account in the name of Spice Holdings in December 2011.

Six months later, €500,000 was transferred into another account in the name of Spice Holdings, held by Royal Bank of Canada in Jersey following the receipt of a faxed instruction.

In April 2013, Mullin paid McCann Fitzgerald the €61,000 in legal fees that the private bank had paid for and in July 2015, he arranged for his company, Quantum, to pay €500,000 to Bank of Ireland Private Bank.

Det Sgt O’Riordan agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that the €500,000 Spice Holdings transfer was never traced, and Royal Bank of Canada did not respond to queries.