ONE of two former Bank of Ireland employees who featured in an expose of how the bank went about recovering debts is understood to have left her current job.
In a secretly recorded video, Kelley Toner is heard to say that she "could be sent to prison" for her methods.
She and another Bank official Sarah Breen - believed to be on long-term sick leave at present - were exposed on BBC’s Spotlight programme which had footage captured by John Conway of Meteor Electrical showing them boasting about methods they used to extract funds from struggling debtors.
Meteor crashed in 2009 owing nearly £8 million, and the Bank - as its largest creditor - sent in Ms Toner and Ms Breen from its commercial finance team to pore over the accounts and see what was recoverable.
Ms Toner, who admitted on the programme having a reputation for being ruthless, left Bank of Ireland a short time later after 15 years running its credit and risk management division.
As well as owning a Belfast fast-food firm with her partner, she was subsequently appointed as operations director of Keys Commercial Finance Ltd in Belfast, which provides a range of services including credit management.
Following the Spotlight programme, her profile on the Keys website was removed.
When asked by the Irish News yesterday to confirm if Ms Toner was still employed by the company, Keys refused to comment.
Fianna Fail described the programme as a shocking portrayal of bank practices.
Deputy Calleary TD said: "Bank of Ireland management must come forward and comprehensively address the allegations that have been made against their organisation including immoral, underhand and potentially illegal practices."
Meanwhile, Tyrone businessman John Conway, who featured in the BBC programme, remains locked in dispute with Bank of Ireland over a personal guarantee, and the issue is still before the High Court.
In a statement, Bank of Ireland said if suffered significant losses arising from its support of Meteor through two facilities - a commercial finance facility under which it purchased Meteor’s book debts, and a loan made to Meteor to allow it time to meet a liability which accrued in respect of foreign exchange transactions.
Bank of Ireland was unwilling to put a figure on the personal guarantee made by Mr Conway.
But it emerged that Mr Conway has already been taken to court by Anglo Irish Bank over a personal guarantee he signed in 2008 for £177,900, and the court ruled in Anglo's favour.
During that hearing, it was revealed that Mr Conway had liabilities to other banks.
Assets secured to the First Trust Bank were said to be a site in Cookstown, an investment property at the Gasworks in Belfast, a farm in Dungannon, a holiday home in Rossnowlagh and a property belonging to Meteor.
In respect of the Northern Bank, the secured assets were stated to be a farm and two sites at Cookstown. But his liability in respect of the Bank of Ireland was not confirmed.
