Solicitor’s assets frozen by High Court
The court yesterday heard that Alexander Gibbons, who practices as Gibbons & Co Solicitor, Kent St, Clonakilty, Co Cork, has a €430,000 deficit in his client account.
The Law Society of Ireland sought the orders after it “formed the view” that Gibbons, who is the principal of the firm and has been working as a solicitor since 1989, “has been guilty of dishonesty”.
An accountant with the Society who investigated Gibbons’ accounts found that payments from the client account were made to an employee of Mr Gibbons, to Bandon Grammar School, and to a marina for Mr Gibbons’ boat charge.
As well as being suspended from practicing as a solicitor, the orders prevent Mr Gibbons from dissipating his assets. In addition, no bank can make any payment out of any account in the name of Mr Gibbons’ firm.
In an affidavit, Edward Sheehan, an investigating accountant with the Law Society, said he attended at Mr Gibbons’ practice last December. He discovered some of the records were not up to date, and that there was a deficit in the firm’s client account of €63,000. That money, relating to stamp duty, was lodged in Mr Gibbons’ personal account.
Mr Sheehan said he was of the opinion Mr Gibbons “had falsified the books in order to conceal that misappropriation”, but was unable to complete his investigation, as not all the firm’s accounts had been written up.
Mr Sheehan said that, at a special meeting of the Law Society’s regulation of practice Committee in March, Mr Gibbons admitted the deficit of €63,000, and admitted his accounts were not up to date. He was given time to make good the deficit and update the practice’s accounts.
Mr Sheehan said the committee received no independent evidence that the €63,000 was repaid. He re-attended the practice on June 9 and from that investigation he discovered that, as of the end of May 2011, there was a minimum estimated deficit of €430,958, mainly due to unauthorised withdrawals by Mr Gibbons from the client account.
He found that last January €266,000 was withdrawn from the client account and debited to an account in Mr Gibbons’ name, while another €57,000 was withdrawn from the client bank account between February 1 and May 31.
He also found that €87,000 was withdrawn from the client account for Mr Gibbons’ own benefit between November 2009 and April 2010.
In addition €15,000 from the sale of shares in an estate in a probate matter were lodged to an office account and a client cheque for €257,000 was lodged to the office account in July 2010 and not rectified until October 2010.
