A SOLICITOR described by a judge as having systematically tried to defraud the State of tax due by others on property transactions has been ordered by the High Court to practise only under the supervision of an experienced colleague.
Fergal Kelly (34), practising as Fergal T Kelly Solicitors, Harmony Hill, Sligo, had admitted 20 counts of professional misconduct after an investigation was carried out by the Law Society into his affairs between September 2004 and May 2005.
Paul Anthony McDermott, for the society, told the High Court yesterday that Kelly admitted the misconduct before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal which recommended he should be allowed to continue practising only under the direction of another solicitor of 10 years standing.
The tribunal found that, while acting for a person in the purchase of property, Kelly was guilty of 12 counts of avoiding stamp duty by updating deeds to show the transaction was carried out on a date other than when it occurred.
He was also found guilty of allowing a €3,000 deficit in his client account, permitting a €21,000 debit balance in his client ledger and giving false information to Anglo Irish Bank over 12 contracts issued in relation to a development.
Mr McDermott said Kelly told the tribunal that the reason for providing false information to the bank was because he “felt pressured” by an unnamed developer into issuing contracts when he should not have.
He had told the tribunal he realised he “should have been stronger and refused”.
Counsel for Kelly said he had not benefited personally from what he had done and had paid out of his own pocket monies owed to the Revenue in relation to stamp duty on deeds.
He was a young man who had learned a lesson from all of this, counsel added. Kelly had set up his own practice in 2003, was married, his wife was pregnant with their first child and he had accepted without demur all the allegations that were put against him.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, said it appeared Kelly was engaged in “a systematic effort to defraud the State” to the extent everyone else had to pay more tax.