Ex-Anglo-Irish bank chief David Drumm jailed for six years for fraud

A former banker who led a bust institution which contributed to the collapse of the Irish economy has been sentenced to six years in prison.

David Drumm, 51, was convicted earlier this month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting after arranging dishonest and fraudulent multibillion-euro transfers to boost the books of the failed bank Anglo-Irish in the months before it imploded in 2008.

Judge Karen O'Connor said Drumm will be given credit for the five and a half months he served in custody in the United States during his extradition to Ireland in 2015.

She said Drumm was being sentenced for the two offences he had been convicted of, and not for Ireland's financial collapse.

"This court is not sentencing Mr Drumm for causing the financial crisis. Nor is this court sentencing Mr Drumm for the recession which occurred," she told the court.

"This offending did not cause Anglo Irish Bank to collapse.

"This court will sentence Mr Drumm only for the two specific offences for which he has been convicted."

She went on to tell the court she was of the view that eight years' imprisonment was the "appropriate headline figure".

But the judge said: "Taking into consideration the mitigating factors, this court is going to impose a sentence of six years' imprisonment in relation to counts one and two."