Former judge gets two years added to jail term but will not serve added time

A former judge already in jail for deception has had another two years added to her sentence for false accounting.

Heather Perrin is currently serving a 2½-year term for inducing an elderly client and life-long friend to leave half of his million-euro estate to her two children while he was a client of her solicitors' firm.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday , sentenced Perrin to another two years for falsifying the account of an estate with the intention of making a gain between May 2004 and February 2009.

“It’s a breach of trust between solicitor and clients,” Judge Ring said. “It’s a fundamental breach.” Perrin was the first member of the judiciary in the history of the State to be convicted of a serious crime. She retired from the District Court bench days before she was jailed last year.

Perrin will not serve any extra time in prison.