Solicitor who caused €500,000 payout struck off again

A SOLICITOR who was struck off for misconduct in 1993 and reinstated two years later, has been struck off by the High Court again…

A SOLICITOR who was struck off for misconduct in 1993 and reinstated two years later, has been struck off by the High Court again after he caused a payout of more than €500,000 from the Law Society’s compensation fund last year.

Peter McGarry, formerly practising as Peter McGarry and Co, Capel Street, Dublin, caused the claim arising out of the misappropriation of client mortgage funds, Paul Anthony McDermott, for the society, said.

Mr McDermott also asked the court yesterday to continue a freezing order placed last year on Mr McGarry’s assets pending restitution of about €519,000 to the compensation fund. Mr McGarry owned apartments in Galway and Italy, he said.

President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns ordered that Mr McGarry be struck off and added he would have to pay back what was owed to the Law Society. He also continued the freezing order.

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Last April, a solicitors disciplinary tribunal found Mr McGarry guilty of misconduct in relation to 11 complaints against him in 2009.

They included a failure to keep proper books and records, failure to furnish clients with bills of costs and allowing an estimated deficit of €126,449 in his client account on November 30th, 2009.

The tribunal heard that the major cause of the deficit related to a failure to redeem a mortgage on a property from the proceeds of a remortgage which had been credited to his client account.

Mr McGarry gave an undertaking to AIB he would discharge a mortgage of €103,000 to Permanent TSB, which was not done.

He also allowed the client account of an Army corporal to get into debt in March 2009 in the sum of €12,986. He made a €6,0000 payment to the Revenue on behalf of a client using money funded by six of his other clients.

He also transferred €30,555 from a client account to his own account without any apparent authorisation or evidence to show he was legally entitled to do so.

He was found guilty by the tribunal of conduct in which he caused, or allowed to be caused, claims to be made on the Law Society’s compensation fund resulting in the payment from that fund of some €519,000.

The bulk of that, €508,000, related to a claim from two of Mr McGarry’s former clients who took out a remortgage with one bank which should have been used to discharge an existing mortgage with another bank, but was not.

His solicitor Hugh Cafferky told the court he had no instructions to resist the orders being sought.