A SOLICITOR who misappropriated client funds leading to claims of more than €500,000 being made to the Law Society, has been struck off by the High Court.
Seosamh Ó Daimhin (otherwise Joseph Devine), formerly practising as Devine Solicitors, O’Rahilly Street, Nenagh, Tipperary, “systematically” took money from client accounts between 2007 and 2008, the court was told.
A total of 79 claims, totalling €524,927, were later made against the Law Society which has so far paid out €379,365 from its compensation fund.
Mr Ó Daimhin was found guilty by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) last July of 26 counts of misconduct over the misappropriation of client funds. He told the SDT he was ill at the time and his practice had gone into chaos after he made a “very stupid move” in taking on additional accounting and financial responsibilities.
He said he had not sat down one day and worked out a plan to cheat the public but had gone through a period of his life when he was under severe financial pressure.
It was clear from Mr Ó Daimhin’s words there were debts of over €1 million at one stage, with missed VAT payments and the Revenue threatening to bring him to court, David Irwin, solicitor for the Law Society’s regulation department said in an affidavit.
While Mr Ó Daimhin did not appear to have any material dispute with the facts alleged against him, he objected to the suggestion he was guilty of fraud, Mr Irwin said.
Among the SDT’s findings were that €54,676 was wrongly drawn from one client’s estate, €42,500 was wrongly transferred to the office account from another client, and €66,454 in VAT payments was wrongly discharged to the Revenue Commissioners out of his client account.
He also wrongly discharged a €10,000 booking deposit in relation to the purchase in trust of a property in St Jude’s Square, Dublin, from his client account and did not lodge an office account to meet that payment because there were insufficient funds in the office account to meet it. Four payments were made for the personal benefit of his wife, Denise Meagher, in February and March 2008, including a sum of €12,000 which, he told the SDT, went towards managing his wife’s overdraft.
Yesterday, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns rejected an application by Patrick Dillon Malone, for Mr Ó Daimhin, to order a full court hearing into the SDT findings.