The Quinn family have told the High Court their claims of criminal actions by the former Anglo Irish Bank are supported by the decision to take criminal proceedings against some former officials of the bank.

Although no criminal charges have been brought against the Quinns, their case has been put on hold and they remain subject to account freezing orders obtained by a bank deliberately liquidated with the effect it cannot pay any damages to them should they win, Martin Hayden SC, for the family, argued.

Anglo had "gone to the wall " to avoid the problems it faced in its own action against the Quinns and the special liquidator was ignoring the "elephant in the room", he said.

"What is lost here is the reality of who is the wrongdoer," he said. Anglo had gone through "a process of gentrification", and a name change and was no longer referred to as Anglo but IBRC (Irish Bank Resolution Corporation).

Anglo had changed its name to put distance between its former conduct and this case, he said.

In a reference to the controversial nuclear power station in the UK, he said: “Just like Windscale before Sellafield, it does not change the fact that radiation happened."

In these circumstances, it was "extraordinary" that special liquidator Kieran Wallace was contending the freezing orders should remain in place, he said. The Minister for Finance, while liquidating the bank, had not offered to support an undertaking for damages and the court should also take that into account and lift the orders, he said.

Mr Hayden was continuing his arguments in the Quinns’ application aimed at discharging orders granted last June and July freezing their accounts below €50m.

Alternatively, they want the court to order Mr Wallace to provide a fortified undertaking to cover damages up to US$500m. Mr Wallace has argued the Quinns have suffered no loss as a result of the freezing orders but have offered to "ringfence" €5m to meet any damages award.

IBRC secured the orders against the five Quinn children and three of their spouses - Stephen Kelly, Niall McPartland and Karen Woods - in proceedings alleging various members of the family and some companies engaged in a scheme to put assets with estimated value of US$500m in the Quinn international property group beyond the bank's reach.

The bank says many of those assets are now "distressed" and it only has full control of one, a property in Kiev, Ukraine.

The Quinns claim the bank's own actions have adversely affected the value of the assets and contend its aim is to dispose of them in a fire sale. They dispute the bank has any valid security over the assets.

The hearing continues before Mr Justice Michael Peart.