Former Anglo Boss Will 'Not Be Spared'

The former Anglo Irish Bank (AIB) boss "will not be spared", according to the Green Party leader John Gormley.

Minister for the Environment John Gormley has said former Anglo Irish Bank boss Sean Fitzpatrick should be "pursued for every penny" he owes, as an investigation was launched into an €87 million loan he had taken from the now crippled bank.

It emerged today that computer and banking records have been removed from the AIB's head office in Dublin, while files copied and stored at the St Stephen’s Green premises during a high profile raid last February were taken out by gardaí last night.

Amid the turmoil at the bank, Mr Gormley said there can be "no preferential treatment" for former Director Sean Fitzpatrick.

Mr Gormley said he was confident that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan would "not spare" Mr Fitzpatrick.

The former Anglo Irish Bank boss resigned last December in controversy over directors' loans.

Rubbing salt into the wounds, Leslie Buckley, a non-executive director of Aer Lingus, for whom Mr Fitzpatrick was a former director, has today called for the former bank chief's perk of free flights to be revoked.

Mr Buckley said the practise of providing free travel for former directors should stop. ‘‘From the chairman down, in Aer Lingus . . . everybody has to take the pain and has to share the pain, and has to be seen very visibly to be doing it,’’ he said.

Mr Fitzpatrick and other former directors of Aer Lingus are entitled to free first-class travel on its routes for as many years as they served on the board. In Mr Fitzpatrick’s case, this means he enjoys the perk until 2012.

(DW/KMcA)