Rogue solicitors failing to hand over stamp duty to Revenue

A GROWING number of solicitors are failing to hand over to the Revenue stamp duty paid by clients when purchasing property.

New Revenue figures indicated that in the first five months of 2009 there have been 155 cases where property agents – the vast majority of whom have been solicitors – effectively defaulted on the payment of stamp duty.

This, coupled with the fact that the number of house purchases is falling, represents a dramatic rise compared to previous years, when there were around 200 cases per annum.