Bank of Ireland made a complaint to the Law Society about solicitor Michael Lynn last year over his failure to fulfil an undertaking on a property transaction, The Irish Timeshas established.
The bank reported Mr Lynn to the society, which regulates the country's solicitors, after he failed to carry out an undertaking given by him within a certain timescale. The bank took the unusual step of reporting Mr Lynn to the society in 2006 over its concerns about his dealings.
It emerged last month in the High Court cases taken against Mr Lynn by the society and a large number of financial institutions that he took out several mortgages with a number of lenders on the same properties on the foot of solicitors' undertakings.
Such undertakings are commonly used in residential property transactions. They allow solicitors to close a property deal without producing the title records for the lender and to draw down loans without immediately registering the bank's security against the property.
Bank of Ireland is among a group of at least 10 financial institutions that are owed more than €70 million by Mr Lynn and which are suing the solicitor to recover their loans.
The bank is not believed to be owed as much as some financial institutions involved in the case. Anglo Irish Bank is owed more than €13 million by Mr Lynn, though most of this is secured against properties. Mr Lynn borrowed heavily for personal property investments, in Ireland and overseas, while he was running his legal practice, Capel Law from the Capel Building in Dublin 7. The society launched an investigation into Mr Lynn in September and discovered that he was using his practice's client account for personal property transactions. It closed his practice on October 15th.
A spokesman for Bank of Ireland declined to comment on its 2006 complaint about Mr Lynn. Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society, said he couldn't comment for legal reasons as the society's case against Mr Lynn was before the courts. The society also received an earlier complaint about Mr Lynn, in June 2003, from two former clients, Galway builder Brian Cunningham and his wife Marian. They claimed the solicitor had charged them "grossly excessive and inaccurate" fees on the sale of a shopping centre in Finglas, Dublin.
The society investigated the complaint in January 2004, but found it "did not constitute grounds to warrant intervention". The Cunninghams claimed that Mr Lynn had deducted fees of €817,747 from a sale deposit of €1.4 million held in his client account. Mr Lynn claimed the fees had been authorised.
Permanent TSB and Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will seek judgment tomorrow for more than €16 million against Mr Lynn in the Commercial Court, a division of the High Court.
A number of other financial institutions are expected to pursue Mr Lynn outside the society's action against him after the Commercial Court ordered Mr Lynn to repay AIB and First Active a total of €11.9 million on Tuesday.
During that hearing, Mr Justice Peter Kelly declined a request to adjourn the AIB and First Active motions for judgment against Mr Lynn. The judge said there was a multiplicity of creditors and that whichever banks were in first could get their judgments first.