THREE bankers were jailed in Ireland yesterday for helping conceal the loss of billions of euros in deposits at Anglo-Irish Bank during the 2008 financial crash.

Former Anglo executives Willie McAteer and John Bowe and former Irish Life & Permanent chief executive Denis Casey received sentences of three-and-a-half years, two years and two years and nine months respectively for their “sham transactions” aimed at inflating Anglo’s deposit levels by €7.2 billion (£6.1bn) in its annual earnings report.

Mr Casey’s bank supplied funds for the purpose which spent just a day on Anglo’s books before being transferred back in a bid to hide the funding crisis engulfing the bank, which was about to crash after a decade of aggressive betting on Ireland’s property bubble.

Anglo was nationalised in 2009, when its liabilities were estimated at around €30bn, helping drive up the deficit that led Ireland to accept a three-year bailout with punishing EU-mandated cuts and privatisations attached.