Former solicitor Thomas Byrne has been convicted of stealing €52 million 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 yesterday after deliberating for 17½ hours over the course of six days.
The trial, which lasted 27 days, is the largest theft case in the history of the State and the jury was unanimous in convicting Byrne on all counts. He stared down at the floor 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.
“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 2nd, when he will be sentenced.
Collateral
Mr Byrne (47) of Mountjoy Square, Dublin was accused of theft and fraud offences totalling €51.8 million. The charges alleged Byrne transferred clients' homes into his name and then used them as collateral for property loans. He was 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 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 clients’ 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 to borrow €51.8 million. These offences involved Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide Building Society, KBC, Bank of Scotland Ireland, National Irish Bank and EBS. Byrne offered no 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.
Regarding the clients’ properties, Byrne claimed they had transferred them to him willingly in return for payment at a later date.
According to the prosecution, “the house of cards collapsed” on October 18th, 2007.
Byrne’s employee, solicitor Barbara Cooney, discovered he had forged her name on a document to borrow money. She reported him to the Law Society.
