Judge calls for whistleblowers on mortgage over-charging

Judge James McNulty, writing in a personal capacity for the Irish Examiner, issued the call after the governor of Ireland’s Central Bank said as many as 15,000 mortgage-holders may have been overcharged.

It happened when borrowers were wrongly denied access to the tracker mortgage interest rates to which they were entitled.

Seven staff members of the Central Bank are investigating the issue.

However, Judge McNulty suggested that “at least some of these cases might actually warrant criminal investigation”.

He added: “Mostly it’s the armed robbers who end up being prosecuted. We seem slower to investigate and prosecute what we quite wrongly call white collar crime.

“(If proven) dishonestly taking money from ordinary decent working people, impoverishing them, and their families and extended families for years is as serious as any armed robbery.

“More so because it is so insidious and so deliberate, so harmful to the victims and done repeatedly for such a prolonged period of time by people who were educated and privileged.

“Credible reports of crime must be investigated by An Garda Síochána, once a formal complaint has been made.

“It only takes one complaint. Or 15,000. Or conscientious whistleblowers.”