August Bank Holiday not a happy time for Anglo figures

It's a bit like Groundhog Day this weekend for former senior staff at Anglo Irish Bank.

Former head of finance Willie McAteer has been sentenced to 3½ years in jail for his role in a €7 billion fraud as the bank battled to stave off collapse in 2008.

He is joined by colleague John Bowe, former head of capital markets at the bank, and former Irish Life & Permanent chief executive Denis Casey, who received terms of two years and two year, nine months respectively.

Precisely one year ago this weekend former colleagues Tiarnan O'Mahoney, Bernard Daly and Aoife Maguire were making the same journey from the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after becoming the first bankers since the financial crash to be jailed.

Of course, Mr O’Mahoney, Mr Daly and Ms Maguire have all since been released from prison.

Last March, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions for conspiracy to defraud Revenue and falsify records against Mr Daly and Mr O’Mahoney. Three months earlier the same court had quashed the sentence against Ms Maguire, who had not appealed her conviction, saying it was too severe.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether any of the latest three bankers to head to Mountjoy will appeal their sentence or conviction but, either way, the chances are that the August Bank Holiday weekend is not going to be a time of fond memories for high-profile figures in the bank that was the catalyst for Ireland’s financial crisis.