A bookkeeper who acted as an auditor when he was not qualified to do so was fined €2,250 yesterday.

John M Casey, Oakview Grove, Blanchardstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty to signing off the annual accounts of nine companies as a registered auditor while he was in fact an accounting technician/ bookkeeper, in contravention of the Companies Acts. Summonses in relation to eight other companies were withdrawn.

Dublin District Court heard that the 45-year-old married father of two had provided bookkeeping services to local businesses, among them friends and family.

Most of his clients were sole traders, but around 10 per cent were limited liability companies and, when he was asked to do their annual returns, he agreed, charging much less than would be charged by a registered auditor.

His lawyer, Paul McMurrow BL, said the State had not been at a loss because of his actions but he accepted that the law said the audit could only be done by a registered auditor and apologised.

Mr Casey had paid for a fully qualified auditor to provide up-to-date books for 12 of the 17 companies involved and the other five were no longer in business.

Mr Casey has done a lot of voluntary fund-raising for Crumlin Children's Hospital and worked for the Special Olympics, the court was told.

Dermot Morahan, solicitor for the Director of Corporate Enforcement, said the problem was that, because annual returns are public documents, a person dealing with the Companies Office is entitled to assume the auditor is qualified.

Judge Bryan Smyth imposed fines of €250 on each of the summonses relating to the nine companies and also ordered him to pay €500 costs.