High Court strikes Athlone man off roll of solicitors

An Athlone-based solicitor who misappropriated €200,000 and left deficits of nearly €600,000 in client accounts has been struck off by the President of the High Court, Richard Johnson this week. John B McGlynn of Castle Street, Athlone, admitted 28 separate offences, including misappropriation of clients" monies and what is known as 'teeming and lading', a system of concealing deficiencies in cash while misappropriating monies from one account to another. On Monday last the court heard the offences were first discovered in July 2005 when a Law Society investigation discovered the first of a number of misappropriations by Mr McGlynn, a married father-of-four who has since stopped practising. Mr McGlynn qualified in 1994 and went on to work as an assistant solicitor in one firm, a partner in another and eventually was working as a sole practitioner when the offences were discovered. During those years, Paul Anthony McDermott BL for the Law Society, said, he misappropriated various sums of money, including €106,000 from a client account which was used to discharge a mortgage of another client. He also falsely entered sums on cheque stubs, including one for the €106,000, and another two amounts of €65,000 and €30,000, which caused book-keeping entries to be falsely made, the court heard. Mr McGlynn also misappropriated €11,000 from an estate he was entrusted with and used it to buy things for his own new house, the High Court heard. In the second firm he was involved in, as a partner, he obtained €100,000 from a client after claiming he would invest it and get 30 per cent interest after six months. He then misappropriated €92,500 of that money, obtaining another €100,000 from two other clients on the same false promise of investment using the money to pay off €100,000 he had misappropriated from another account. The Athlone solicitor then left deficits of €166,278 when he moved from the first firm he worked for, and €484,533 from the second firm while, as a sole practitioner, he created a deficit of €147,051, most of which had been carried over from his previous practice. Mr McGlynn gave no real explanation as to what happened to the money, Paul Anthony McDermott BL for the Law Society said in court on Monday, but with help from family and friends, he had paid it all back and nobody was out of pocket. His lawyer, Sean Sexton, told the court it was a 'tragic, tragic case' in which 'he acknowledged he had let himself, his family and his profession down'. Mr Justice Johnson said in view of what he heard there was no other possibility but to strike him off.