Solicitor jailed for stealing €260k from clients has prison sentence halved on appeal

A former solicitor from Castlebar, County Mayo, has had her prison sentence reduced from twelve to six months following a successful appeal. Jacqueline Durcan, aged 47, had pleaded guilty to stealing €260,000 from clients between February 2008 and January 2011 while operating Durcan Solicitors as a sole practitioner. She was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment in December 2016. The Court of Appeal found the original sentence could have been appropriately reduced for a person of previously good character. The court noted substantial mitigating factors including Durcan's full cooperation, early guilty plea, complete reimbursement through the Solicitors Compensation Fund, and her status as mother of five young children aged between seven and thirteen. The judges acknowledged the particular hardship of her serving her sentence away from her family, who had relocated to Brussels. Durcan has been struck off the solicitors' register.