THE FORMER CHAIRMAN and chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, Seán FitzPatrick, was back in court today along with two other former directors from the defunct bank as a trial date was provisionally set for January 2014.

FitzPatrick appeared at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court with the bank’s former finance director Willie McAteer and the former managing director of Irish operations Patrick Whelan.

Last July the trio were charged with providing unlawful financial assistance to 16 clients in order for those clients to buy shares in the bank in July 2008. The 16 people include members of the Quinn family and the so-called Maple 10.

Books of evidence were served against the three men at a court hearing in October following an investigation by officials from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigations.

The sheer number of documents – amounting to three boxes for each defendant – means that it will take some considerable time for the defendants’ legal team to prepare their case.

According to RTÉ, the judge at the Circuit Criminal Court, Mary Ellen Ring, set a trial date for 13 January 2014. That date will likely be confirmed at another hearing on 6 March.

The trio reportedly made no comment in court.