Former solicitor found guilty on all charges

Former solicitor Thomas Byrne has been convicted of stealing €52m from the banks and defrauding 13 clients out of their houses or money.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on all 50 charges of theft, forgery and deception today after deliberating for 17 and half hours over the course of six days.

The trial, which lasted 27 days, is the largest theft case in the history of the State.

The jury was unanimous in convicting Byrne on all counts. He stared down and did not react as the verdicts were read out.

Judge Patrick McCartan said the evidence was overwhelming against Byrne and that the jurors decision was “almost inevitable”.

He thanked the jury and said he was very impressed with its attention to the trial before excusing them from further service.

“We are going into a period when the courts will have to deal with many complex trials,” the judge told the jurors. “You give us great confidence that the jury and jurors of this city and county can deal with these type of cases.”

Byrne was remanded in custody until December 2, next when he will be sentenced. Judge McCartan directed that he receive his medication while in custody.

Mr Byrne (aged 47) of Mountjoy Square, Dublin is accused of theft and fraud offences totalling €51.8m.

The charges alleged Byrne transferred clients’ homes into his name and then used them as collateral for property loans.

He is also accused of using invalid collateral to fraudulently borrow millions from six financial institutions.

He had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 50 counts of theft, forgery, using forged documents and deception between 2004 and 2007.

The jury had previously being ordered to acquit him of another count due to lack of evidence.

The trial, which was the first to digitally display exhibits on computer screens throughout the courtroom, was divided into two modules.

The first module dealt with how Byrne signed his client’s homes into his own name without their knowledge using forged signatures. His victims included his close friend, a 91-year-old woman and an investment partnership of three gardaí.

The second module detailed how Byrne used the same properties as collateral with different financial institutions to borrow €51.8m.

These offences involved Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide Building Society, KBC, Bank of Scotland Ireland, National Irish Bank and EBS.

The jury of seven men and five women were told the events occurred at “the very zenith of the Celtic tiger” when people were “getting large amounts of money from banks on very flimsy paperwork.”

Jurors were warned that the banks were not on trial in the case and any reckless lending they engaged in did not excuse Byrne’s actions.

Byrne offered no legal defence to the allegations concerning the banks except claiming he was being threatened by his former business partner, property developer John Kelly, into taking out the loans on his behalf.

Regarding the clients properties, Byrne claimed they had transferred them to him willingly in return for payment at a later date. He said one friend transferred his house as a favour so he could use it as collateral on a loan.

The trial heard from Aideen Costigan who described her "horror" at discovering Byrne had transferred her family home into his name.

In 2006 Byrne carried out work for Ms Costigan and her husband, Paul, relating to the sale of the house left by Ms Costigan's recently deceased mother.

Ms Costigan told the court that the solicitor arranged the sale of the house to a third party but that she later found that he had transferred the property into his own name by using a forged signature.

She gave evidence that the house was "tied up in the courts" for the following six years and that they recently sold it for less than half of what they were originally offered when Byrne became involved.

The jury were told Byrne followed the same pattern with other clients.

Vera McGrane said her mother, Kathleen Fahy, was also a client of the accused before she died in June 2007 at the age of 91.

The jury saw a Land Registry document which appeared to show that Ms Fahy had sold the family home to Byrne for €380,000 a month before she died. The document was signed with the name of the deceased.

Ms McGrane said her mother could not have signed the document as she was very ill at the time and confined to bed in Ms McGrane’s home in Cork.

The witness said that at that stage her mother needed Ms McGrane’s assistance in signing documents because her hand trembled.

She said she helped her mother sign all her documents and that she never signed a deed of transfer to Byrne.

She said she never left her mother’s side in her final days and that the house was transferred over to Mr Byrne “in his dreams”.

A garda and property dealer gave evidence that Byrne never passed on a €1.87m cheque which was intended to pay off a property loan.

Brian Whelan said he and his two garda colleagues used Byrne as a solicitor in the purchasing and refinancing of an apartment block on Dorset Street in Dublin city centre.

Mr Whelan told the jury that when he gave the accused the cheque to pay off the original loan as part of the refinancing deal, it was never passed onto their bank, Permanent TSB.

The trial also heard evidence from two brothers who were property dealers and landlords.

Matt and Terry Connors operated properties around the city and rented some out as social welfare housing to HSE clients.

Matt Connors gave evidence he employed Byrne in the purchase of five properties and that he later found out that these had been transferred into the solicitor’s name using forged signatures without his knowledge.

Byrne used these properties and others as security for 18 loans from the six banks.

For properties to be valid collateral, they must be “unencumbered” and not promised to any other lending institution as security.

The vast majority of the properties Byrne used as security were encumbered, some several times over. This meant that when he defaulted on his repayments, the properties were essentially worthless to the banks. Anglo Irish Bank was the only institution to recoup some of their borrowings on the houses.

Prosecuting counsel Remy Farrell SC told the jury that Byrne’s fraud escalated over the years, culminating in 2007 when he borrowed nearly €18m.

One of these loans, worth €4.5m was personally fast tracked by Irish Nationwide CEO Michael Fingleton after Byrne met him in a corporate box in Croke Park.

According to the prosecution, “the house of cards collapsed” on October 18, 2007.

Byrne’s employee, solicitor Barbara Cooney, discovered he had forged her name on a document to borrow money.

Byrne begged her not to go to the authorities but later that day she went to the Law Society.

By the following Monday the Society had shut down Byrne’s practice and froze his accounts.

Byrne fled the country to England but later returned to face the garda investigation.