Solicitor Thomas Byrne is no longer fit to practise and should be struck off the roll of solicitors, a disciplinary tribunal has recommended. Mr Byrne, who owes at least €47 million to various financial institutions and is being investigated by the Garda, is due to come before the president of the High Court who will decide if he should be struck off.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal made its decision following a short hearing yesterday. The recommendation to be struck off came from the Law Society which has already shut down his practice following an investigation which began last October.
In December 2006 the tribunal found Mr Byrne guilty of running up a deficit of €1,696,969 on his clients account. It also found that he had allowed personal transactions to be drawn from the client bank account and had failed to maintain proper books of accounts.
That time he was censured and ordered to pay €15,000 to the compensation fund along with costs.
He had also been found guilty of failing to register mortgages from a bank with the Land Registry and had also furnished the bank with misleading or erroneous information.
Tribunal chairwoman Maeve Hayes ordered that Mr Byrne pay the costs of yesterday's hearing. His counsel Seán Ó Síocháin said his assets had been frozen by the High Court.
On Monday, Anglo Irish Bank secured court orders allowing it to sell 11 residential investment properties with which the solicitor had dealings. The bank wants to sell the properties to partly meet debts of some €4.8 million due to it from Mr Byrne.
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