A solicitor who perjured himself in the High Court in 1992 during proceedings against him by the Incorporated Law Society has been given a four-year suspended sentence.
David Joseph Fitzpatrick formerly practised at Main Street, Blackrock. The High Court proceedings were taken under the Solicitors Act 1954-1960 after the law society discovered he was also practising as Arransons, Eustace Street, Dublin, but that practice was not registered with the society.
Fitzpatrick (45), of Ballinclea Heights, Killiney, and Brooktown, Mount Merrion, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to causing a letter containing falsehoods to be produced in evidence on October 10th, 1992, for the purpose of misleading the High Court and obstructing justice.
He also admitted conspiring to pervert justice between October 1st and 29th, 1992, by causing a letter to be sent by another solicitor to the Incorporated Law Society which contained false representations to mislead the High Court in the proceedings.
Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to a third charge of perjury on October 19th, 1992, when he falsely swore that Mr Gerard McDonald had been a creditor of his for a personal loan of £15,000 and that Mr McDonald had paid him £7,000 in cash on either October 7th or 8th, 1992.
Det Garda Kevin Monks told prosecuting counsel Mr Patrick Gageby SC (with Mr Shane Murphy), prosecuting, he arrested the defendant in August 1997 when he returned from the US.
The law society initiated the 1992 proceedings against Fitzpatrick after discovering the Arransons practice and for breaches of the regulations governing solicitors' client accounts. The society paid out £8,000 over the accounts breaches.
The judge said there was nothing to gain by jailing Fitzpatrick or demanding he carry out community service. He imposed four-year concurrent sentences on each charge but suspended them on Fitzpatrick entering into a bond.