AIB IS investigating a possible fraud involving the theft of up to €5 million by a former employee of Anglo Irish Bank from deposit accounts at the bank.

The investigation began after AIB received a complaint from a customer about deposits placed with Anglo.

Anglo transferred €8.6 billion in deposits to AIB in February as part of the wind-down of Anglo. Some 211 staff also moved to AIB.

AIB called in the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation following the complaint from the customer and the Central Bank was informed about the alleged fraud.

The customer’s relationship with Anglo is understood to date back several years.

The investigation is examining whether bank records were falsified to show that the funds were held on deposit when the money had in fact been moved elsewhere.

The employee is believed to have moved money between accounts to conceal the theft and that he avoided detection by ensuring there was enough cash available to repay customers when the accounts matured.

The customer made the complaint after raising a query in relation to the deposits while the then employee was out of the office.

“As a result of a recent customer enquiry, AIB began an investigation into whether any fraud occurred in a small number of transactions concerning certain discrete funds in the deposit book that was acquired from Anglo Irish Bank,” said AIB.

The bank said that if fraud had occurred AIB would cover the transactions and that “customers will suffer no financial loss”.

The bank said it was “collaborating closely” with Anglo on the investigation. Anglo had no comment to make on the investigation.

The Central Bank confirmed that it had been informed about the investigation but it would not make any comment beyond that.