Stockbroker gets two years added to jail term
Former Benedictine monk Stephen Pearson, aged 45, a father of three from North Esk, Glanmire, was a partner in W&R Morrogh, a 114-year-old firm, when he used €5.5 million of clients’ funds to play the stock market.
The company collapsed with losses of €7m.
Pearson pleaded guilty to 31 charges of fraudulently converting clients’ funds, 11 charges of forgery and five counts of obtaining funds under false pretences between November 1995 and April 2001.
Last October Judge Desmond Hogan sentenced him to three years at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, but suspended the final year, saying he had regard for the effect prison would have on him, his wife and his family.
The DPP appealed against the leniency of the sentence and yesterday the Court of Criminal Appeal increased the sentence to five years’ imprisonment.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding at the three-judge court, said the court was satisfied that the sentence was unduly lenient: “The word must go out to the public that white collar crime of this nature will attract serious sentences.”
The judge said Pearson had taken part in a series of frauds over five years.
The judge said Pearson’s victims had been widows and elderly people, among others, and many had entrusted their life savings to him. He said Pearson’s partner in the firm Alec Morrogh was reduced to penury in attempting to use his assets to recompense the victims of the fraud.
The sentence hearing last year was told that W&R Morrogh, with 9,000 clients, was registered with the Irish and London stock exchanges.
Alec Morrogh, grandson of the company founder, was a 60% partner of W&R Morrogh since 1992, along with his cousin, Pearson, who owned 40%. Pearson became financial controller of the firm in that year.
A major Garda investigation revealed the extendof the fraud when W&R Morrogh went into receivership with losses of €7m in 2001.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
