Missing solicitor fined €2m and struck off roll

Michael Lynn: High Court adds new fine to €80m in liabilities

THE HIGH Court has ordered that missing solicitor Michael Lynn be struck off the roll of solicitors and pay a total of €2 million in fines to the Law Society.

Mr Lynn did not attend yesterday’s brief hearing before the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, of the proceedings brought against him by the society.

With estimated liabilities of more than €80 million to various financial institutions and others, Mr Lynn has failed to turn up since late last year for multiple court appearances related to those liabilities and his conduct.

The report of the society’s Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), recommending that Mr Lynn be fined and struck off, was presented last month to Mr Justice Johnson and yesterday, Shane Murphy SC, with Paul Anthony McDermott, for the society, asked him to implement the recommendations.

Mr Murphy said the tribunal had said Mr Lynn was not a fit person to be a member of the solicitors’ profession and, in response to the judge, he confirmed a warrant for the arrest of Mr Lynn remains outstanding.

Mr Justice Johnson asked whether there was any appearance by or on behalf of Mr Lynn and the court registrar, Paula Healy, called for such appearance.

There was no reply and the judge said he saw “no reason whatsoever” not to make the orders sought. He made orders striking Mr Lynn off and fined Mr Lynn a total of €2 million.

The judge also referred the papers in the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions and to the Garda Fraud Squad and awarded costs of the proceedings against Mr Lynn. He continued orders freezing Mr Lynn’s accounts and adjourned to June 9th proceedings relating to payments out from the society’s compensation fund.

In other matters involving Mr Lynn, the judge directed that documents held by the Garda, which are required to register title to certain properties in relation to which Mr Lynn has had dealings, be made available for the purpose of registering title. Last month, the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal found Mr Lynn guilty of some 50 charges, including charges of securing loans from different institutions on the basis of multiple undertakings on the same properties.

Tribunal chairman Frank Daly said Mr Lynn had acted in “a disgraceful fashion” and had “ruthlessly used” the system of solicitors’ undertakings for property transactions “to his own fraudulent advantage”. However, the grave abuse of that system by Mr Lynn was not proof that the system of undertakings as a whole was defective, he said.

Mr Daly said Mr Lynn had caused hardship and distress to many people trying to go about their business, in addition to the financial loss caused to people and institutions.

Also yesterday, the court adjourned to June 9th separate proceedings involving solicitor Thomas Byrne, whose practice at Walkinstown Road, Dublin, has been closed by the Law Society.

The solicitors’ tribunal this week recommended Mr Byrne be struck off the register and be fined €1 million. That matter will be dealt with by the court on June 9th in addition to other matters, including Mr Byrne’s application to vary a freezing order on his bank accounts to enable him meet certain expenses.

Mr Byrne was in court yesterday when the judge also made orders requiring National Irish Bank to pay out €427,505 in Mr Byrne’s client account in the bank, which has been frozen by court order, to the society’s compensation fund. The society sought those orders to go towards payments of more than €600,000 which it has already made from that fund to Mr Byrne’s clients. Separate proceedings concerning a third solicitor, alleged to have incurred a €1 million deficit in his client account but who cannot be named by court order, were adjourned to June 19th.