Courts

Michael Lynn ordered to provide statement of financial means before legal aid will be granted

Former solicitor seeking appeal against conviction for stealing more than €18m from financial institutions

Michael Lynn (55), of Millbrook Court, Red Cross, Co Wicklow: appealing his conviction for stealing just over €18 million from six financial institutions. Photograph: Collins Courts

Eoin Reynolds
Fri Apr 12 2024 - 13:56

Former solicitor Michael Lynn will have to provide a statement of his financial means to the Director of Public Prosecutions before legal aid will be granted for an appeal against his conviction for stealing more than €18 million from six financial institutions.

At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Lynn sought to change his legal representation and to transfer legal aid to his new solicitor John P O’Donohoe.

However, a barrister for the Director of Public Prosecutions said they are seeking a statement of means from Lynn.

Mr Justice John Edwards granted the change of solicitor but reserved the court’s position on legal aid pending the statement of means being served to the State. He said that if any issue arises the court should be notified.

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Lynn, who was found guilty of stealing just over €18 million from six financial institutions during the Celtic Tiger era, is serving a five-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Lynn (55) was found guilty by a jury of 10 of the 21 counts against him following a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial last year. The jury was unable to agree on a further 11 counts and those charges have since been dropped.

It was the second trial in the case after the jury in his first trial, which ran for 16 weeks in 2022, was unable to agree on any verdicts.

Lynn, of Millbrook Court, Redcross, Co Wicklow had pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of theft in Dublin between October 23rd, 2006 and April 20th, 2007, when he was working as a solicitor and property developer. He has no previous convictions and has been in custody since he was convicted of the 10 counts just before Christmas.

The court heard Lynn obtained multiple mortgages on the same properties in a situation where banks were unaware that other institutions were also providing finance. These properties included ‘Glenlion’, Lynn’s €5.5 million home in Howth, and multiple investment properties.

The financial institutions Lynn was found guilty of stealing from were National Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank, Bank of Scotland Ireland and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

Lynn took the stand and told his trial that the banks were aware he had multiple loans on the same properties and that this was custom and practice among bankers in Celtic Tiger Ireland.

He was extradited from Brazil in 2018 after spending four and a half years in a “hellhole” prison there. In the first trial, Lynn told the jury the jail was essentially run by prisoners and he witnessed the beheading of a young gay prisoner

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