Solicitor held by gardaí after she was arrested for theft and false accounting offences

• 9h ago

A solicitor is in garda custody this afternoon after she was arrested for the offences of theft and false accounting.

The solicitor, who is from the west of Ireland, is being held at a garda station in Galway.

Her arrest follows an investigation by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) who began their probe after receiving a complaint about her alleged criminal activities from the Law Society.

The investigation centres around a six figure sum of money.

It is alleged the legal professional took funding from a clients’ account and placed it into her business account.

It is understood the money allegedly stolen relates to seven of her clients.

The solicitor is no longer practising and has been the subject of separate civil court actions.

“At one stage this lady was considered something of a high-flyer in the legal world,” a senior source said.

“But all the indications are that she ended up in debt and in ‘a robbing Peter to pay Paul’ situation which has led to the end of her career and her arrest today.

“All the indications are at this stage that there is a strong likelihood of prosecution in this case,” the source said.

In recent years the GNECB have arrested a number of solicitors for a wide variety of offences in separate investigations.

This includes a west Dublin solicitor who was arrested last August as part of an investigation onto the theft of over €4m from his clients.

In his case fraud squad detectives have been investigating the complaint for a number of years after it was referred to gardaí by the Law Society who had received 40 separate complaints in relation to his alleged activities which involve the misappropriation of funds.

Another west Dublin solicitor is currently before the courts where he is facing charges in relation to an investigation about multiple fraudulent claims against local authorities.