Tribunal calls for solicitor to be struck off

A SOLICITOR who misappropriated €1.6 million from his clients should be struck off the solicitors’ roll, a tribunal has recommended.

Niall Colfer, who had a practice at Donaghmede Shopping Centre, Dublin, was subject to almost 40 complaints relating to the misappropriation of money. Mr Colfer did not contest the charges.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Mr Colfer guilty yesterday of professional misconduct and recommended that he be struck off the solicitors’ roll.

It is the second time this year that the tribunal has recommended that Mr Colfer be struck off. In January, the tribunal found that he had misappropriated €700,000 from the sale of 60 apartments by the property development company Ancon Design and Developments.

They also found that he misappropriated €79,252.33 from the estate of a man claiming the money as fees.

Mr Colfer’s activities first came to the attention of the Law Society in 2004 following a complaint by a junior solicitor in his office. The society has already paid out the €1.6 million that he stole from his clients. His practice was frozen by the High Court that December, when he was ordered not to reduce his assets below €1.4 million. He has not practised since.

He was ordered yesterday to pay €800,000 into the Law Society’s compensation fund to pay back clients he had defrauded. He has already paid a similar sum into the compensation fund.

Along with misappropriating the money from Ancon, Mr Colfer was found guilty of more than a dozen cases of receiving stamp duty money and not passing it on to the Revenue Commissioners

In the case of one client, he used the stamp duty money to pay stamp duty for another client. He failed to pay the barrister and chairman of Arnotts Richard Nesbitt SC €40,000 in fees and owed a further €34,775 to barrister Frank Martin.

He also failed to pay €10,880.50 from a will to five nominated charities. Separately, he used €125,000 misappropriated from the will of a Polish woman to pay fines on behalf of a builder client. On another occasion he diverted €250,000 from his client account into that of his builder account.

He also wired €115,000 of his clients’ money to the United States.

The evidence produced at both tribunal hearings will now go before the president of the High Court who holds the power to strike him off. That hearing is likely to be held within four weeks.