A solicitor who forged another solicitor’s name on a fictitious contract to get a bank loan was struck off by the President of the High Court today.
Daniel J. Coleman, formerly practising as Coleman and Co Solicitors, Ballinrobe, Mayo, also failed to comply with an undertaking relating to holding the title deeds for another property which led to a €320,000 loss for a credit union. He has been ordered to pay restitution to the credit union in that sum.
The High Court heard today an explanation over the fictitious contract was made on his behalf in which the “Celtic Tiger” was blamed for lowering standards.
Representing himself yesterday, Mr Coleman failed to get an adjournment to allow him get legal representation to defend the strike off proceedings taken against him by the Law Society. Mr Coleman denied misappropriating any monies.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns made the strike off order after saying he was satisfied Mr Coleman was “well aware” of all the developments which had led to a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) finding he was guilty of professional misconduct.
Earlier, Paul Anthony McDermott BL, for the Society, said one of the cases heard by the SDT related to the sale of part of a housing site in Tuam, Galway. Mr Coleman had forged the signature of another solicitor on the contract and also acted for both the seller and the purchaser in contravention of solicitor regulations, counsel said.
The only explanation offered by counsel on behalf of Mr Coleman at the SDT was to “blame the Celtic Tiger for the lack of attention to detail” and the lowering of standards generally, Mr McDermott said.
In an affidavit from David Irwin, a solicitor in the Society’s regulation department, he said the SDT found Mr Coleman guilty of misconduct last March by causing or allowing the name of a Limerick solicitor to be written on contracts for the sale of the Tuam housing site on May 19th, 2004.
As a result, Mr Coleman had allowed a fictitious contract to come into existence whereby it was presented to ACC Bank the innocent solicitor was acting in trust for the purpose of misleading the bank so it would loan money to a development company, which Mr Coleman was also acting for.
He was also found guilty of destroying a file relating to this contract without the instructions of the development company.
In relation to the credit union case, Mr McDermott said Mr Coleman failed to comply with an undertaking to hold the title deeds for land on behalf St Jarlath’s Credit Union, Tuam, Galway. The land involved was later sold on and the credit union was left around €320,000 short, counsel said.
The Society never found out where that money went and Mr Coleman was never able to provide files relating to it, Mr McDermott said.