Bank staff shown on film allegedly falsifying invoice

Bank of Ireland staff were caught on camera allegedly falsifying information to support a credit insurance claim, according to a television documentary screened last night. Tyrone-based Meteor Controls International Ltd went into liquidation in June 2009 with liabilities of £7.6 million.

Bank of Ireland was one of its biggest creditors and sent two staff to the company’s premises to collect book debts due to lender under one of its facilities.

BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight current affairs programme broadcast footage of the staff, picked up by the company's closed-circuit TV cameras, showing that one of them allegedly falsified an invoice to claim credit insurance for €12,000 due to the company.

According to a transcript of the footage, the account in question was €6,000 in credit, and thus should not have been submitted as an insurance claim.

However, the bank’s employee asked one of Meteor’s former staff, who was aiding the liquidator in collecting money, to alter the details for the insurer. The woman subsequently states “I am a liar” and jokes that she is going to prison. Footage also shows them taking an invoice for money not due to Meteor and placing it with their own files.

The programme, At War with the Bank, detailed the difficulties Meteor founder and director John Conway had with the lender subsequent to the company going into liquidation. The incidents recorded on CCTV were drawn to his attention by former staff, then working for the liquidator. He wrote to both Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher and the board, detailing what had happened. He also maintains that the bank mis-sold it foreign exchange services.

Some of the issues are the subject of legal proceedings between Mr Conway and Bank of Ireland. These include an action relating to personal guarantees he gave for a loan advanced to Meteor to allow it time to meet bank liabilities under a foreign-exchange contract.

The bank claims it discovered irregularities in the operation of the commercial finance facility, under which the lender bought the company’s book debts. It reported those to its fraud insurer, which appointed its own forensic accountants.

"As a result of these investigations, the fraud insurers made a substantial payment to the bank in respect of invoices which insurers considered to be fraudulent or of no value," it said in a statement issued yesterday. It added that this was the subject of a criminal complaint against Meteor to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

“Mr Conway has provided the media with secretly recorded video footage of bank employees engaged in the collection of the book debts which the bank purchased from Meteor,” its statement said. “The only video footage seen by the bank is highly edited and was made after Meteor entered liquidation. It is overlaid with commentary that is highly selective and out of context.

“The bank has requested a copy of the full and unedited footage but to date Mr Conway has failed to provide same.”