Jurors told to set aside anger over bank crisis

Jurors in the trial of a former solicitor accused of defrauding banks out of millions of euro have been urged to set aside any anger they might feel towards financial institutions.

Thomas Byrne, 47, has pleaded not guilty to 51 counts of theft, forgery, using forged documents and deception between 2004 and 2007. The charges relate to 12 properties and six banks and involves the alleged theft of €51.8m.

The jury has been told that many of the allegations concern Mr Byrne fraudulently transferring elderly clients’ houses into his own name and then using the properties to secure millions of euro in mortgages.

Prosecuting counsel Remy Farrell yesterday continued his opening address and laid out what will be alleged against Mr Byrne.

Mr Farrell said there would be evidence that, in 2006, three gardaí decided to buy an apartment complex on Dorset St. One of the gardaí was an existing client of Mr Byrne and they decided to hire the solicitor to help with the purchase.

Mr Byrne was given €1.8m by the men to transfer to the bank as part of the deal and it is alleged that this money then disappeared. Mr Byrne is also accused of not paying the stamp duty on the property, which amounted to €198,000.

Counsel said as time went on the fraudulent behaviour increased in intensity and by 2007 the accused was “scrambling” around looking for properties and going through his client list for potential targets.

Counsel said everything collapsed in Oct 2007 when the Law Society began to examine the accused’s practice.

“A lot of people were found swimming naked when the tide went out and few more so than Thomas Byrne,” said Mr Farrell.

The jury were told that the first half of the case will deal with how Mr Byrne allegedly fraudulently took possession of the properties. The second half of the trial will concern how he used these properties to obtain millions of euro in loans from six banks.

Counsel described it a “quite hare-brained” fraud and compared it to a pyramid scheme.

Mr Farrell told the jurors might they might feel anger towards the banks and believe they got what they deserved.

“I’m certainly not here to make you feel sympathetic to the banks; in fact, I think any prosecutor who tried to do that would have a considerable task on their hands,” he said, adding the banks were not on trial.

In evidence, the jury heard from a property law expert how houses are transferred between people, and an official from the Revenue provided a synopsis of the stamp duty system.

The trial continues.