The Irish Times reports that the head of group taxation with DCC plc acted on the instructions of the chief financial officer when she made alterations to the draft minutes of meetings of the board of Lotus Green Limited, a Dutch-registered subsidiary of DCC, the High Court was told yesterday.

Maireád O'Malley agreed that one particular alteration, which was included in the final signed minutes of the Lotus Green board, had stated the board had discussed a certain matter related to the payment of an interim dividend when the board had not actually discussed that matter.

Another alteration involved an insertion into the draft minutes of a Lotus board meeting of July 31st, 1997 to the effect that DCC chief financial officer Fergal O'Dwyer (also the sole Irish director on the Lotus Green Board) had reported to the board of receiving dividends from Fyffes plc, she said. She agreed that matter was not referred to in the first draft of the minutes received from a staff member of ING Bank in Holland who had attended the board meeting in question.

O'Malley also agreed that some of the alterations, insertions and deletions made to the draft minutes of the Lotus board on the instructions of O'Dwyer were included in the final minutes signed by the Lotus board.

The court has heard beneficial ownership of the DCC shareholding in Fyffes plc was transferred to Lotus Green in 1995 as part of a structure set up following advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and legal advice, to avoid payment of capital gains tax on any subsequent sale of the Fyffes shares. Those shares were sold for €106 million over three days in February 2000, yielding a profit of €85 million for DCC.

In its defence to proceedings brought by Fyffes alleging insider dealing in relation to those share sales of February 2000, DCC has denied the claims and has pleaded the share sales were properly organised by Lotus Green.

On the 57th day of the case yesterday, Brian Murray SC, for Fyffes, began his cross-examination of Ms O'Malley, who began working for DCC in March 1997.

O'Malley agreed she had begun dealing with the minutes of Lotus Green board meetings shortly after taking up employment with DCC.

She said, from April 1997 to April 1998, she would receive first drafts of board minutes from staff of ING Bank in Holland who carried out administrative work for Lotus. She would correct typing errors, and errors in the English used in the minutes, and then bring drafts to O'Dwyer, who would go through the drafts with her from his notes and sometimes suggest insertions and alterations. She said O'Dwyer would give her his notes and board packs. She had shredded O'Dwyer's notes because she believed the minutes were finalised.