It's all your fault, Brian Fitzgibbon's bosses told him just before they booted him out of his job. The head of home loans at Irish Nationwide Building Society was given the blame for making some very bad loans to a couple of shylock solicitors who are so deeply in arrears there's little chance that their creditors will be fully repaid.
INBS lent solicitor Michael Lynn EU4.1 million for the purchase of a grand pile in Howth, adding to Mr. Lynn's debt load that is thought to be approaching seventy million euro. So it must be the head of home loans who's at fault for lending such a poor credit risk so much credit. Here's the door, Mr. Fitzgibbon, and don't let it hit your arse on the way out.
However, Mr. Fitzgibbon knew full well that he hadn't been the one to grant the loans in question. On the contrary, he said that those very loans should be denied. Who did approve the mortgages? That would be the managing director of INBS, Michael Fingleton. The man who showed Mr. Fitzgibbon the door.
The matter went to court, where Mr. Justice Frank Clarke proved that he is no fool. Not only could INBS not fire Mr. Fitzgibbon, they could not hold a disciplinary meeting against him. Indeed, any sort of inquiry that the building society might make in relation to those who work under Mr. Fingleton would be suspect, since he's the one who signed off on the loans, went around normal channels to grant them, and then canned an innocent bystander.
In its defense, INBS claimed that Mr. Fitzgibbon was let go because of other dealings regarding questionable bonus payments to branch managers. The bad loans to the solicitors were only part of an overall inquiry. No scapegoating here, they insisted, but the facts as presented in court proved otherwise.
As your granny often said, when you point a finger at someone, there's three more fingers pointing back at you. And wouldn't you know it, but a judge might be looking to see where all the fingers are directed.
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