Warrants based on several Acts

If extradited, the investment broker Mr Tony Taylor may face charges including an offence for which he could be fined up to £1 million (€1.27 million).

The Investment Intermediaries Act offence, upon conviction on indictment, can also be punished with imprisonment for up to 10 years, or both imprisonment and a fine.

The extradition warrants for Mr Taylor cover sections from six different Acts, including section 79 (8) (a) of the 1995 Investment Intermediaries Act which is punishable with a £1 million fine.

If Mr Taylor is brought before the Irish courts it will be the first time a prosecution has been sought under the section. It reads: "An officer of an authorised investment business firm who destroys, mutilates or falsifies, or is privy to the destruction, mutilation or falsification of any record or document affecting or relating to the property or affairs of the authorised investment business firm, or makes or is privy to the making of a false entry therein, shall, unless he proves that he had no intention to defeat the law, be guilty of an offence."

Other offences covered by the warrants include section 20 of the Fraud and Conversion Act 1916; section 10 of the Criminal Justice Act 1951 (false pretences); section 2 of the Forgery Act 1913; and section 297 of the Companies Act 1963, as amended by section 139 of the 1990 Act.

The sections of the Companies Acts referred to concern applications to the court from liquidators, creditors or contributries of a company, where a fraud may have been perpetrated against the company, to order the return of assets to the liquidator. The Acts allow for persons found to have perpetrated a fraud against the company, to be made personally liable, with no limit on that liability.