The sentence hearing of three former bankers who conspired to mislead the public about Anglo Irish Bank is due to get underway today.

They were convicted last month following the longest criminal trial in the history of the State.

Not only did it go on for longer than any other criminal trial before it; at just under 62 hours, the record for jury deliberations was also broken.

The end result was the convictions of former Anglo executives Willie McAteer and John Bowe and the former CEO of Irish Life & Permanent Denis Casey.

They were found to have knowingly facilitated €7.2bn in back-to-back transactions between March and September 2008 that made Anglo’s corporate deposits look a lot healthier than they actually were.

In doing so, they conspired to mislead investors and depositors in the former bank.

Peter Fitzpatrick, who used to work as IL&P’s director of finance, was acquitted of the same charge.

The others are all due back in court today for what is expected to be a lengthy sentence hearing.