A former senior partner at a leading stockbrokers in Cork who spent seven years training as a monk was jailed for three years today for defrauding clients of almost €5 million.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told Stephen Pearson from North Esk, Glanmire had dipped his hands in his clients' pockets conning them out of €4.6 million.
Judge Desmond Hogan said the stockbroking firm W and R Morrogh, an institution in the city, was forced to close after the extent of the fraud was uncovered.
Sentencing the 44-year-old father of three, Judge Hogan said he had breached the trust of his colleagues, friends and family. "The commission of these offences was a very serious breach of trust by the defendant in a number of directions," the judge said.
"This breach of trust was to the clients of his firm, this breach of trust was to his partner and this breach of trust was also to the professional organisation and the standards required by them in the exercise of his job."
Pearson pleaded guilty in June to 47 counts of illegal dealing over a six-year period from 1995 at W & R Morrogh's. After spending several years training to become a monk at Glenstal Abbey, Pearson then embarked on a saga of fraud and deceit picking on the most vulnerable clients in the firm, the court was told.
Pearson inherited a 40 per cent stake in the stockbroking firm when his father retired in 1997. Garda fraud squad officers spent around four years examining documents and taking statements from Pearson, his partner Alec Morrogh and staff at the firm.
The investigation revealed Pearson had sold clients shares without their knowledge and used the proceeds to settle debts run up on loss-making deals on futures and options markets.
The judge said he would take into consideration that Pearson had suffered from a gambling addiction. The court was told letters and reports had been submitted by a clinical psychologist, Dr Margaret O'Rourke and staff at the Rutland Centre which deals with addicts.
The court also heard Pearson had no previous convictions and was of good character prior to the fraud. Considering the mitigating factors Judge Hogan suspended the final 12 months of the present term on the condition that Pearson agreed to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for three years. Pearson also gave an undertaking not to act as a stockbroker again.