The Law Society has defended its handling of the Thomas Byrne case after the former solicitor was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the largest white-collar crime ever to come before the courts. Judge Patrick McCartan said Byrne (47), of Mountjoy Square in Dublin, had engaged in “colossal wrongdoing” by stealing €52 million from banks and defrauding 13 clients out of homes or money. He...
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Law Society says it acted swiftly in Thomas Byrne case
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Donegal solicitor used client funds of more than €177,000
A Co Donegal solicitor used at least €177,000 of his client’s money to pay for personal expenses, the High Court has been told. The court was told yesterday that the Law Society took action against Andrew G Morrow, practising as David Wilson and Co Solicitors, Raphoe, Lifford, Co Donegal, after its regulation of practice committee decided he had been...
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Naughty lawyers slipped off the book
Illustration: Simon Letch This week there was a flurry of activity at the Bureau de Spank. This is the name informally nominated for the creaking disciplinary mechanism to which members of the legal profession are subjected. More often than not it involves the application of wet lettuce leaves to the buttocks of those unlucky enough to have been caught. It's a squid-like apparatus with the Legal Services Commissioner, the Law Society and the Bar Association all waving disciplinary fronds at members of the profession. The overriding feature is that at each stage of this ''independent'' regulatory process lawyers are regulating their colleagues, whether it is the council or committees of the...
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Solicitor struck off over ‘repeated disgraceful’ conduct
A solicitor has been struck off over what the High Court court heard was “repeated disgraceful” conduct involving a number of clients being left without money due to them or any explanations about what happened to it. Aiden Barry, formerly practising as Aiden Barry Solicitor, Bank...
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Lawyer struck off for misleading client
A lawyer from Dargaville has been has been struck off and rebuked by the Law Society for failing to respond to his client's instructions and then lying about it. Gregory Bryden Clarke...
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Former Hawke's Bay mayor struck off
A former Hawke's Bay mayor and member of the New Zealand Order of Merit has been struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors. The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has ordered that Hugh Edward Staples Hamilton be struck off. Mr Hamilton stood down abruptly from Waipukurau law...
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Former mayor struck off as lawyer
A former Central Hawkes Bay mayor and lawyer who used client funds to pay off debts owed by his company has been struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors. The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal made the order against Hugh Hamilton who has not held a legal...
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Dunedin lawyer to be struck off
Dunedin lawyer John Milne, under Serious Fraud Office investigation for the alleged theft of nearly $3 million from clients, is to be struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors. The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal ordered...
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Auckland lawyer Minkai Huang struck off
An Auckland lawyer convicted of stealing from a client has been struck off. Minkai Huang was sentenced to community work for taking $9500 worth of fees from a client. The New...
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Lawyer jailed for stealing from clients
An Auckland lawyer who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients has today been jailed for 2-1/2 years. Richard Holland, 57, appeared in the Auckland District Court for sentencing this afternoon after pleading guilty to and being convicted of three counts of theft in a special relationship. The court heard that between November 2011 and March 2013 Holland...
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Ex-solicitor Thomas Byrne moves to Mountjoy to begin 12-year prison term
The convicted former solicitor Thomas Byrne has been moved to Mountjoy Prison, where he has begun a 12-year sentence for theft and fraud offences totalling almost €52 million. Byrne was transferred from Cloverhill Prison, which caters mainly for remand prisoners, where he spent two weeks awaiting his sentencing hearing. Judge Patrick McCartan imposed a 16-year term, with four years suspended, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday. Victims of Byrne’s fraud, whose properties were transferred to his name without their knowledge, have called on...
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Ex-solicitor Byrne moves to Mountjoy to begin jail term
The convicted former solicitor Thomas Byrne has been moved to Mountjoy Prison, where he has begun a 12-year sentence for theft and fraud offences totalling almost €52 million. Byrne was transferred from Cloverhill Prison, which caters mainly for remand prisoners, where he spent two weeks awaiting his sentencing hearing. Judge Patrick McCartan imposed a 16-year term, with four years suspended, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday. Victims of Byrne’s fraud, whose properties were transferred to his name without their knowledge, have called on...
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Dublin solicitor Greg O'Neill guilty of misconduct charges
A Dublin solicitor has been found guilty of several charges of professional misconduct relating to over €35,000 that he owes to five former clients. Greg...
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Issues raised by barristers’ report will feed into disciplinary regime
Barristers don’t handle client money and they have less direct interaction with the public than solicitors. They are also fewer in number than the other arm of the profession, so it’s no surprise that there are far fewer complaints made against them than against solicitors. Last year, according to the annual report from the Barristers Professional Conduct Tribunal, 50 new complaints were lodged and a further...
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Moira solicitor John Irwin admits £94k clients theft
5 May 2015 From the section Northern Ireland The case was heard at Craigavon Crown Court A County Down solicitor stole almost £94,000 from the estates of three deceased clients to prop up his failing business, a court has been told John Irwin, 39, of Trummery Heights, Moira, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation and three charges of false accounting. Craigavon Crown Court was told the offences took place on dates between August 2007 and July 2012. A judge said he would pass sentence later this month. The offences involved three deceased men Irwin was acting for in probate matters on behalf of their relatives. A prosecuting barrister said the offences came to light...
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Townsville solicitor Alexander Baxter admits misappropriating $6.7m in clients' trust funds
A WELL known Townsville solicitor who admitted misappropriating almost $6.7 million in clients' trust funds over almost two years while he was gambling has been struck off. One client was defrauded of more than $5.4 million and 17 other clients also lost money, according to a Queensland Civil and...
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Law Society faces questions after Byrne case reveals huge abuse of solicitor’s privileged position
Trust is a solicitor’s most valuable asset. By stealing clients’ properties and using them to extract €52 million from the banks – a scheme that amounted to the biggest fraud ever to come before the Irish courts – Thomas Byrne abused that trust so thoroughly that the aftershocks of his crime will ripple widely through the profession. The damage Byrne has done to solicitors in general, as Judge Patrick McCartan remarked yesterday, “must be considerable”. It was doubtless with that in mind, and with an eye to the serious questions that fall to it as the representative and regulatory body for solicitors, that the Law Society’s public statements yesterday focused heavily on the steps it took to...
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John David Rangitauira struck from roll
Thursday, 14 March 2013, 2:35 pm Press Release: New Zealand Law Society 14 Month 2013 John David Rangitauira struck from roll The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has ordered that John David Rangitauira be struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors. This follows a...
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Lawyer struck off after $28m fraud conviction
Rotorua lawyer John Rangitauira has been struck off the the roll of barristers and solicitors after being sent to prison over his fraudulent use of money over a $28 million inheritance scam. The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal made the order following a hearing in Wellington...
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Solicitor Gerald Kean’s appeal on misconduct finding adjourned
An appeal by solicitor Gerald Kean arising from a finding of professional misconduct against him has been adjourned to September. A Law Society Solicitors’...
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