EX-BANKERS GIVEN COMMUNITY SERVICE
Two former executives at the defunct Anglo Irish Bank will serve 240 hours community service for their role in an illegal lending plot.
Pat Whelan and Willie McAteer were spared jail in April over a rogue 450 million euro (£370 million) scheme to unravel a secret stock trade in July 2008 that regulators feared threatened Ireland's entire bank system.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told the order was being imposed in lieu of a two year prison sentence.
Judge Martin Nolan told the men to make the most of the time.
"Gentlemen, enjoy your community service," the judge said.
The bankers had been convicted earlier this year over the lending to a secret circle of Anglo clients, businessmen and developers nicknamed the Maple 10.
The loans were part of deals to unravel a doomed 2.4 billion euro (£1.97bn) gamble on Anglo's shares - 28% of its total stock - by former billionaire industrialist Sean Quinn.
Whelan and McAteer are the first company directors to be prosecuted in Ireland under section 60 of the Companies Act. They are now barred from similar roles for five years.
