Anglo Irish Bank's decision to sue its former chief executive David Drumm for the €8m he owes it is long overdue. But when will Anglo go after its disgraced former chairman Sean FitzPatrick, who owes it 13 times as much?

The bank, which was nationalised in January, has now launched High Court proceedings against Drumm, seeking the recovery of the €8m.

Anglo is also seeking to get the High Court to set aside the transfer of ownership of Drumm's former home in Malahide's ultra-swish Abingdon estate from the joint names of Drumm and his wife Lorraine into Lorraine's sole name.

The Malahide house had been pledged as security against some of Drumm's loans from Anglo, and by transferring the ownership into his wife's sole name he would effectively be putting the property beyond Anglo's reach.

Drumm recently took the six-bedroom house off the market after failing to find a buyer, despite dropping the asking price from €2.79m to "only" €2.3m.

While the sight of a bank pursuing someone for money which they owe is never a pleasant one, I won't be shedding too many tears for Drumm. He was paid more than €12m during the four years he was Anglo chief executive, making him Ireland's best-paid bank boss.

Drumm also owns not one but two homes in the American state of Massachusetts. One of these, a modest 4,800 square feet pad in Cape Cod, was purchased for €3m in March last year.

Drumm has since filed legal documents declaring the Cape Cod property to be his main home. Under Massachusetts state law, this protects Drumm from his creditors in the event of a forced sale.

In other words, Drumm won't be without a roof over his head any time soon.

It could well be a different story for many of the taxpayers who were forced to inject €3.8bn into the disgraced bank after it was nationalised last January. With hundreds of thousands of homeowners in negative equity, where their mortgages are greater than the value of their homes, sympathy for Drumm will be fairly thin on the ground.

After all, it was he and former chairman Sean FitzPatrick who presided over a tripling in the Anglo loan book to more than €72bn in the space of just four years.

Reckless

The price of such reckless lending came home to roost when the property bubble burst, with Anglo now proposing to transfer €28bn of bad loans to NAMA, more than any other Irish-owned bank.

By the time the Anglo mess has been sorted, the taxpayer will get little change out of €15bn.

However, while we should have little sympathy for Drumm, he was in reality just the sorcerer's apprentice.

It was FitzPatrick who was, and is, the real villain of the piece. FitzPatrick, who had been Anglo chief executive for 18 years before Drumm took over at the end of 2004, was forced to quit as chairman of the bank last December when it emerged that he had concealed massive loans from Anglo. At the end of March, FitzPatrick owed Anglo a scarcely credible €106.8m.

FitzPatrick went to elaborate lengths to hide these loans from shareholders.

Every September, just before the end of Anglo's financial year, FitzPatrick would get a short-term loan from the Irish Nationwide Building Society. He would use this money to 'repay' his Anglo loans. Then, a few days later, he would borrow the money from Anglo once again.

This caper went on for at least eight years. Its discovery last December destroyed whatever remaining credibility Anglo possessed leading to its nationalisation, at enormous cost to the taxpayer, the following month.

However, while Anglo is going after Drumm, it has so far failed to pursue FitzPatrick, who isn't even paying the interest on his loans.

By all means chase Drumm for the money he owes, but, as taxpayers, we demand to know why the same thing isn't happening to Seanie.

- Dan White