Cents & Nonsense:  Scene: Grafton Street in the early to mid-noughties. A man, wearing his hair slicked back and an expensive dark Italian suit, steps up to a golden podium and speaks into the microphone: "Feel left behind? Need a spring in your step and a designer watch on your wrist? Ladies, want to look 10 years younger? Want some serious bling for those dainty fingers and ropes of diamonds on your swan-like necks?"

Shoppers crowd around and start nodding their heads up and down at every question. They look at one another, smiling. The speaker reaches into a platinum safe and pulls out a shining bottle.

"I have just the thing!

Dr O'Tigah's Get Rich Quick Homegrown Elixir. There's a fortune in every bottle. Step right up and buy it before our limited supply runs out. For just €100,000 this special concoction guarantees your place in an exclusive millionaires' club. You'll be just like all your neighbours and friends. Buy quick before our special sale ends!"

It seems laughable that any of us would lay down €100k for a bottle of magic potion from a carnival-style huckster, but the last month's events show that the allure of easy money remains a powerful motivator.

After an investigation by The Irish Times, the Roebuck Counselling Centre in Rathgar admitted asking clients for large sums of money upfront for counselling and life mentoring services. Counselling clients were asked to pay, in advance, an annual fee of more than €3,000. Life mentoring participants "invested" €100,000 with the view to it being refunded if they did not become millionaires within two years, according to Bernie Purcell, the director of the centre.

Several people have come forward to describe their experience of the Roebuck Counselling Centre, including Des Martin from Dublin. He told this paper that a counsellor at the centre, Clare Hoban, said that if he gave her money then he could realise all his dreams. Martin was interested in property development and was running a building company.

Hoban started asking him for varying amounts, from €5,000 to €30,000. Martin said she asked: "What are your dreams worth to you?"

By the summer of 2006, he had paid the centre €235,550. This was funded by the sale of his home and also saddled his company with huge debts. He has since been refunded the money.

In an unconnected episode , two solicitors - Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne - are under investigation for drawing down multiple mortgages on the same properties. Both men seemingly exploited banks' use of solicitors' undertakings. This allows solicitors to close property deals without producing title records to the lender and to draw down loans without immediately registering the bank's security. This is basically the equivalent of the solicitor saying "on my honour" or "I swear" and then getting a big fat cheque from the banks. The problem is that no one - not even the Law Society of Ireland - was checking to see if the solicitors' fingers were crossed behind their backs when they did their undertakings.

Lynn's known liabilities now amount to approximately €70 million and it's unlikely that the value of his properties will cover the mortgages.

Last year, Byrne was found guilty of professional misconduct for using client accounts for his personal transactions and incurring a deficit in the client accounts. He should have known that playing with other people's money without asking is not very nice. Byrne's estimated liabilities are about €36 million. He has been playing hide-and-seek with the authorities ever since, drawing down millions from a bank last month.

What is the common theme in these sagas? Everyone involved wanted to get rich, quick! It's like an extended episode of Keeping Up Appearances. If Mrs Bucket (Bouquet) were Irish and living in Dublin during the height of the Celtic Tiger era, she would say: "Finbar, why aren't we dotcom millionaires like all the neighbours?"

Chances are, many of us have cast a sharp eye on the neighbour's new car/ extension/ numerous sun holidays and said, "I'll have some of that!" To achieve this dream, some people remortgaged their homes and relied on easy credit to create an appearance of wealth.

Ireland has been blessed with a rising property market for more than 10 years and property owners have done very well out of it - most through sheer luck rather than any talent for timing the market. Everyone is a genius in a rising market and many are revealed as fools when it falls.

Margaret E Ward is a journalist and director of Clear Ink, the Clear English Specialists