Wealthy ex-banker Henry Elvin
A FORMER ULSTER Bank chief “skimmed” through documents relating to Co Derry businessman Michael Taggart without fully understanding them, a court has heard.
Henry Elvin (pictured) is at the centre of a “misleading” affidavit on when Taggart Group cheques were bounced, it was claimed.
The shock claim came in civil action being taken against Ulster Bank by Drumsurn brothers Michael and John Taggart.
They are suing the bank claiming that they turned down multi-million pound offers for property in 2006 and 2007 believing their business was in good shape.
But unknown to them, they claim, Ulster Bank had expressed internal concerns and never relayed it to them.
Had they known, they allege, they would have taken the offers and cleared their debts to Ulster Bank. The bank is counter-suing for around £9M it claims it is owed in personal guarantees over properties in Belfast and Dublin. The Taggarts deny committing to the personal guarantees.
The Taggart empire collapsed in 2008 with hundreds of jobs losses.
Earlier in the case it was claimed that the Taggarts received no warning before two cheques for more than £300,000 were bounced by the Ulster Bank.
During cross-examination Henry Elvin, from Comber, Co Down, insisted the decision to stop the payments was made in early June 2007.
An official document stating that it was taken a week previous had been mistaken, he accepted.
Asked if reports at that time came to him, he replied that he was known as “the bank man” who was in the office from seven in the morning to seven at night.
Mr Elvin said: “I was in early and I was in late. That’s when I would have read a lot of credit reports.”
Gerard Simpson QC, for the Taggarts, put it to him that the decision to stop the cheques was actually taken on May 29.
Rejecting his contention, Mr Elvin told him the ledgers clearly show it happened a week later.
But Mr Simpson persisted: “Why did you, a senior official at the bank, in a court case allow an affidavit to be signed by you which was, on the face of it, misleading?”
The former bank boss replied that he had been “open and honest” about not going to check the ledger on that one point.
As the cross-examination continued, the barrister said: “This picture you’re trying to paint as a careful man who knew all about the Taggart case is very far from the truth.
“You skimmed through the matters and didn’t fully understand the situation.”
According to Mr Elvin, however, that assessment was “furthest from the truth”.
He responded: “The actions of the Taggart Group defined what I understood about the Taggart Group in terms of managing the risk.
“I raised concerns with them and they proceeded to go elsewhere and do other banking deals.
“It wasn’t a negative on the Taggarts, it was simply a risk profile, (and) we decided to go our separate ways.”