A financial expert has told the Dublin High court that information available in the Fyffes insider dealing case would not have materially affected the share price, had it been widely available at the time.

According to a report in the Irish Examiner, Frank O’Brien told the court he had examined the information available to DCC chief executive Jim Flavin, which information Fyffes alleges to be "price sensitive".

That information was contained in Fyffes' management accounts for November 1999 and the fruit distributor's trading report for December 1999, both of which documents were made available to Mr Flavin in January 2000.

He said that the difficulties for the sector in late 1999/early 2000 were well known and their implications for Fyffes’ trading and profitability were generally available.