The Chief Superintendent in charge of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation has accused some banks and building societies of being less than forthcoming in disclosing incidents of bogus accounts.

Speaking on RTE Radio yesterday, Mr Frank Glacken said that, while most are extremely co-operative in disclosing possible money laundering activities to the Garda authorities, a number of major financial institutions are failing to comply with the terms of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act.

The two main banks have both strongly refuted these accusations. A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said it was "absolute" in its compliance with the Money Laundering Act. AIB said it "fully supports and implements" the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act.

Mr Glacken acknowledged the increased number of accounts referred to the bureau since the act came into force in 1995, but suggested that a substantial amount of dubious transactions were still not being brought to its attention.

"In its first year of operation we received 199 complaints from financial institutions. This year we have received over 600 and the amount disclosed as being suspicious is in excess of £80 million. That would suggest that they are complying but I regret to say some are not, or have been very selective in the manner in which they are interpreting the Criminal Justice Act," according to Mr Glacken.

The act requires financial institutions to make disclosures to the bureau of suspicious transactions. Mr Glacken referred to instances that came to its attention involving bogus accounts being set up in major publicly quoted companies and high profile building societies which had not been referred to the authorities by those institutions.

"We have an example of a person who opened an account in a major plc in a false name. Funds were put into that account using a stolen cheque which was later returned "Refer To Drawer". The garda became aware of the circumstances and have approached the institution concerned, indicating that this account is in a fictitious name. "The institution concerned will not co-operate in our investigation and rather glibly told us they have hundreds of these accounts. I found that a little bit surprising."

Mr Glacken said he was "disappointed" with such a response, while in other cases, the financial institutions have insisted on only releasing sensitive information to the garda on foot of a court order.

"If they know accounts are in fictitious names, they are obliged under the act to make disclosures to the Money Laundering Investigation Unit which is part of the Garda Fraud Bureau and they haven't done so. "Some have indicated to us that if we want anything from them we must obtain it by court order. I am disappointed with that response."

Mr Glacken also highlighted another example of failure of co-operate with his unit by one of the State's building societies. "A person opened an account in their real name at a building society, which is a major household name, lodging two stolen cheques to it. The cheques were instantly honoured by the building society concerned and the person was allowed to take the money out of that account. "When the cheques went to drawer's bank account they were dishonoured but this was never reported to us. That building society has indicated that they won't report that incident and have already reached agreement with the person who lodged the cheques to pay the money back."

He stressed that the Criminal Justice Act places "serious obligations" on all financial institutions to help the Garda to investigate money laundering.