THE HIGH Court has struck off disgraced lawyer Thomas Byrne, who owes almost €57 million to financial institutions, from the roll of solicitors and has also fined him €1 million.
In urging the president of the High Court to show some sympathy for Mr Byrne, his counsel Seán Ó Síocháin said yesterday that his client regretted what had happened and, unlike missing solicitor Michael Lynn, he had appeared before the court consistently and was prepared to “take his punishment”. Mr Byrne was in court again yesterday.
In separate proceedings in the Commercial Court also yesterday, in which Mr Byrne entered no defence or appearance, Mr Justice Peter Kelly ruled that Mr Byrne was guilty of fraud in relation to transactions involving six rental properties in west Dublin valued at €2.7 million.
The president of the High Court Mr Justice Richard Johnson yesterday upheld the recommendations of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that Mr Byrne be struck off and fined €1 million and he made those orders. Last month, the tribunal heard borrowings of almost €57 million had been uncovered in Mr Byrne’s accounts.
The application to have Mr Byrne, whose practice at Walkinstown Road, Dublin, has been closed down following an investigation that began last October, struck off was made by Shane Murphy SC on behalf of the Law Society.
Mr Ó Síocháin said Mr Byrne regretted what had happened. In asking the court for sympathy for his client, he said that as a result of being struck off, Mr Byrne would be unable to provide for his young children and his wife. Mr Byrne had also “tendered his resignation” as a solicitor in January of this year.
However, Mr Justice Johnson said he would apply the full force of the tribunal’s findings. He imposed a fine of €1 million and struck Mr Byrne’s name off the roll of solicitors. Mr Justice Johnson also awarded the Law Society their costs against Mr Byrne.
In the Commercial Court, Mr Justice Kelly upheld as a fact claims by two Dublin property owners that their solicitor, Mr Byrne, had fraudulently executed deeds which purported to transfer their interest in the six properties into Mr Byrne’s own name.
Mr Byrne had not entered any defence or any appearance in the proceedings brought by Terry Connors and Matthew Connors.
On the basis of that finding of fraud, the judge made orders requiring the property register to be rectified so as to register both men as the owners of the freehold interest in four of the properties, free from encumbrances, and owners of the leasehold interest in the remaining two properties, also free from encumbrances.
In earlier hearings, the court heard Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plc had appointed receivers over the six properties.
The proceedings were initiated in the Commercial Court late last year by Terry Connors, a taxi driver, Keadeen Avenue, Walkinstown, and Matthew Connors, a property owner, Oatfield Avenue, Clondalkin.
They said they were engaged, among other things, in the business of renting out houses for profit and that they owned and operated a large number of rental properties in the Dublin region.
The men said they owned six properties. However, they had only learned in October 2007, several years after they purchased the properties with mortgages from National Irish Banks, that Mr Byrne had gone on to fraudulently register those properties and procure charges against them in his own name, without their knowledge or instruction.
They said it appeared that Mr Byrne had, at some time in 2006, mortgaged or charged the properties to Anglo Irish Bank Corporation which later appointed receivers over the properties. It was only when the receivers wrote to the occupiers of the properties that they learned of Mr Byrne’s fraudulent actions, they said.
