during the 1980s, lawyers claimed yesterday.

The attack came during the marathon Supreme Court trial of ex-banker Arnold Todd and others on a total of 17 charges of theft, fraud and false accounting.

Todd's defence counsel, John Perry QC, told Todd's former secretary at the Bank of Bermuda, Mrs. Carol Bean, now a manager, that the trial was not concerned with the bank's operations today.

He said: "We are concerned with how the the bank was operating in the 1980s, when they were quite prepared to lend money left, right and centre to whoever came along to borrow.'' And he quoted Julian Hall, lawyer for co-accused Cecil Durham, who earlier described the bank as operating like the Wild West.

He said the bank in the 1980s lent money "in the certain knowledge that, one, they get high interest and two, if they fail to get money they foreclose and walk in and take away people's property''.

"This bank was not operating like all banks regularly operated in the 1990s -- to use Mr. Hall's phrase, like the Wild West, was it not,'' he asked Mrs.

Bean.

Earlier, Mrs. Bean admitted that cash left the bank on loan despite loan forms being only partially filled out and that promissory notes, which gave the bank guarantees of redress in the case of a default, were signed while blank.

Todd, 56, faces 17 counts of theft, fraud and false accounting, allegedly committed between 1985 and 1990.

It is claimed that Todd used his senior position at the Bank of Bermuda to submit bogus loan applications and a network of companies to further his schemes.

Also in the dock with Todd, of Pearman's Hill, Warwick, are importer Varnel Curtis, 49, of St. Anne's Drive, Southampton, hotel security chief Milton Woods, 61, of Old Road, Southampton, and businessman Cecil Durham, 56, Ramgoat Hill, Smith's Parish.

All three men face charges related to the allegations against Todd. The four deny the charges, which involve about $1.2 million.

Durham's lawyer, Mr. Hall, questioned Mrs. Bean on two statements she gave to Police in connection with the case, in 1991 and 1995.

Mrs. Bean earlier told the court that she operated only on Todd's instructions with regard to loans and overdrafts.

But Mr. Hall reminded her that she had said that Todd had allowed her to Secretary followed Todd's instructions of (an) assistant (than) just doing secretarial work''.

Mrs. Bean, however, insisted she only interviewed anyone at Mr. Todd's instructions and she was not often asked to receive information from clients and record it.

Durham is charged with one offence -- dishonestly raising money from a Bank of Bermuda loan knowing that the money was to be used by Todd to purchase a property.

Mr. Hall produced the loan application, one of the "principal documents'' supporting the charge against his client.

Mrs. Bean agreed that it was her handwriting on sections of the form and that the loan application lacked a signature -- which invalidated it as an application.

And she said she could not recall meeting Durham in connection with the application, saying she would have got the information on the form from Todd or the bank's credit information file.

She added: "It was not my job to fill in forms -- it would be my job to complete a document as instructed by Arnold Todd.'' In response to questioning by Crown counsel Michael Pert QC, Mrs. Bean said she had not come under any pressure from anyone at the Bank of Bermuda in connection with her testimony and that the presence in court of Bank of Bermuda president-designate Henry Smith had not intimidated her.

And she agreed with Mr. Pert that she would have given the same answers to questions whether Mr. Smith had been there or not.

She further agreed that she had no power in relation to decision-making on loans.