THE LAW Society has appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s refusal to strike off two solicitors who admitted operating secret accounts in a deliberate attempt to evade tax.
Maintaining public confidence in the legal profession should have been the most important consideration in deciding whether to strike off the solicitors, not the fact that no one was out of pocket as a result of their activities, Shane Murphy, for the society, argued.
He was opening the society’s appeal against the High Court’s refusal to strike off Colm Carroll and Henry Colley, who were the partners and principals in Roger Greene Sons, Bridge Street, Dublin. While Mr Carroll has retired, Mr Colley is still a solicitor.
The appeal concluded yesterday and the three-judge Supreme Court – with Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan and Mr Justice George Birmingham – reserved judgment.
The pair had admitted operating secret accounts, one of which involved lodgements of at least €32 million made over a three-year period, in a deliberate bid to evade tax.
They eventually made a €7 million settlement with the Revenue Commissioners.
In February last year, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie rejected the society’s application to strike them off the roll of solicitors and instead suspended them for a year and restricted their practice for a further three years.
They had admitted to a solicitors’ disciplinary body that the secret accounts, mainly involving payments of arrears of fees from health boards for which their firm acted, were set up specifically to evade tax.
In a subsequent Law Society investigation, it was found that €32 million was lodged between 2000 and 2003 to an Ulster Bank deposit account which was not disclosed to their own accountants. Withdrawals were made by cash or bank draft.
Their practice accounts were forged in an effort to deliberately mislead the society’s investigators by claiming that fees had been paid to barristers when the money was actually lodged to the secret account.
The Law Society sought the strike-off orders arising from their admissions of some 50 charges of misconduct to the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal.
The tribunal’s recommendation to strike them off had to be decided by the High Court and Mr Justice McKechnie, rejecting that recommendation, suspended them for a year and directed they should practise for a further three years as assistant solicitors under the supervision of a Law Society-approved solicitor.
He also ordered that they pay €50,000 each to the Law Society compensation fund and each pay 50 per cent of the society’s costs.
Mr Justice McKechnie said the most critical factor in his decision not to strike them off was the fact that clients were not left with any liabilities. If there had been any shortfall, he would have struck them off, he said.
Yesterday, Mr Murphy said the most important factor in deciding whether to strike off was maintaining public confidence in the legal profession and there was a question of trust in the two men’s roles as solicitors.
This was a case in which there was a sustained effort to hide their activities over a period of time from Law Society investigators, Mr Murphy said.
Hugh Mohan, for Mr Carroll, and John Fitzgerald, for Mr Colley, argued that the penalty was proportionate to the circumstances. Counsel added that both men had apologised to all concerned for what they had done.