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Michael Lynn’s sentencing for stealing €17.9m delayed pending psychological report

Lynn (55) had been due to be sentenced today for stealing around €17.9m from six financial institutions

Shane Phelan

Today at 17:00

The sentencing of former solicitor and property developer Michael Lynn has been adjourned until next month after he sought time for a psychological report to be prepared.

Lynn (55) had been due to be sentenced today for stealing around €17.9m from six financial institutions.

But the sentencing date was refixed for February 19 by Judge Martin Nolan following an application from Lynn’s counsel, Paul Comiskey-O’Keeffe.

The barrister said his client had been examined a couple of time in prison but a formal psychological report was still awaited.

“There are matters about his psychological health I want to bring before the court,” said Mr Comiskey-O’Keeffe.

The judge queried why a psychological report was necessary when no issues about Lynn’s psychological health had been raised during his trial.

The barrister said that it hadn’t been relevant during the trial but was relevant now and made reference to time Lynn had already spent in prison in Brazil while he was awaiting extradition.

“It is highly relevant to his conditions of detention. The weight to be attached to it,” said Mr Comiskey-O’Keeffe.

Lynn’s counsel also indicated he would have to call Lynn to give evidence.

Judge Nolan agreed to the adjournment on the basis there was “no point in having a disjointed hearing of this”.

Mayo-born Lynn, with an address at Millbrook Court, Redcross, Co Wicklow, was found guilty last month on ten of 21 charges he faced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The struck off ex-solicitor had denied the 21 counts of theft, which related to dates between October 23, 2006 and April 20, 2007.

The funds were used to fund his foreign property empire and an extravagant lifestyle.

As well as operating a legal practice, he was involved in building projects in Portugal, Hungary and Bulgaria via his company Kendar Holdings.

Lynn fled Ireland after he came under investigation in 2007 for taking out multiple mortgages on the same properties.

He moved around Europe before going to Brazil in 2011, which had no formal extradition treaty with Ireland.

But he was returned to Ireland in 2018 under an ad hoc arrangement after spending four and a half years in a Brazilian jail fighting extradition.

He finally went on trial in 2022 but the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict.

However, a jury in a second trial last year was able to come in with verdicts in relation to just under half of the charges.

The court heard Lynn obtained multiple mortgages on the same properties in a situation where banks were unaware that other institutions were also providing finance.

These properties included ‘Glenlion’, Lynn’s €5.5m home in Howth, and multiple investment properties.

The financial institutions involved were Bank of Ireland, National Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank, Bank of Scotland Ireland Ltd and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

Lynn claimed the banks were aware he had multiple loans on the same properties and that this was custom and practice among bankers in Celtic Tiger Ireland.

The guilty verdicts returned by the jury related to Irish Nationwide, National Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank and Bank of Scotland.

It was unable to reach a verdict on the single count relating to Bank of Ireland alleging Lynn stole €2.7m from that bank.

It was also unable to reach verdicts on 10 counts relating to Irish Nationwide, including the allegation that Lynn stole €4.1m from the financial institution in April 2007.

The charge the jury convicted Lynn on in relation to Irish Nationwide related to a single count of stealing €508,000 in January 2007.

Lynn claimed in court he had “off the books” agreements with the banks to use the loan money for his property developments abroad.

He also claimed that in relation to Irish Nationwide, he signed a “memo of understanding” with bank chief Michael Fingleton in a Dublin hotel in 2006.

Lynn claimed this agreement involved Irish Nationwide providing funding for apartment development in Portugal, with Mr Fingleton set to benefit personally from this arrangement.

Due to ill health, Mr Fingleton was unable to give evidence at the trial to corroborate or contradict Lynn’s claims.

But the court heard from dozens of witnesses, many of them bank officials who testified that they would never have loaned the money to Lynn if they had been aware he had already taken out mortgages on the same property.

These witnesses said they were not aware of any “off the book arrangements” in relation to his lending.

Lynn’s former legal executive, Liz Doyle, told the trial that she signed his signature and forged the signature of a solicitor in the firm, Fiona McAleenan, on loan documents under Lynn’s instructions. She said she did not discuss this with Ms McAleenan.

The allegations against Lynn first came to light in September 2007, when Ms McAleenan alerted the Law Society to irregularities in the practice.

Lynn’s assets were frozen and he went to London, then Portugal and eventually Brazil, where he was arrested in 2013.

He was struck off the roll of solicitors in 2008 following an investigation by the Law Society.

During his trials, Lynn gave evidence about his time in Brazilian prison, which he claimed was essentially run by inmates and like something out of violent television series ‘Game of Thrones’.

He claimed in court to have witnessed one young prisoner being decapitated for being gay.