Woman put a quarter of €2m compensation into Anglo deal

A woman claims she was missold an investment into which she had put €500,000 from a €2 million compensation award received over an accident which left her in a wheelchair.

Caroline Campbell (39), who secured the compensation arising from a 14ft fall from a coastal footpath, claims her investment is now worthless.

She says the money she received was meant to last her lifetime and the former Anglo Irish Bank was aware of this when she invested the money in one of its funds which later "performed disastrously" during the economic crisis.

In November 2005, Ms Campbell, a former financial controller and now a student, settled an action against Clare County Council arising from her fall at Carrigaholt, Co Clare. The incident left her confined to a wheelchair.

In March 2006, she put €500,000 from her €2 million settlement into a property investment fund operated by Anglo Irish Private Banking. She claims Anglo knew the money it was investing on her behalf was required to last her a lifetime.

The fund performed disastrously and her investment is now “effectively worthless”, she claims. Anglo missold the investment to her and was negligent in doing so, she alleges.

The High Court has given her leave to apply to bring an action over the matter against Anglo's successor, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).

In an affidavit, Ms Campbell says the Anglo fund was created to generate profit from the perceived robustness of the European commercial property sector. Anglo represented to her the fund initially targeted investment in 10 properties sourced and secured by several “joint venture” partners, she says.

Those partners were in fact Anglo customers and the bank had already lent money to those customers for the purpose of acquiring those properties but did not disclose this to her, she alleges. Anglo was effectively utilising the fund to underwrite those borrowings to the other customers, thus generating profit for itself from both ends of the transaction, it is claimed.