Jacqueline Durcan’s theft sentence appeal allowed

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Jacqueline Durcan’s appeal against the severity of her theft sentence was allowed on 23 January 2017, according to a Judicial Council list of Court of Appeal sentencing decisions. The entry records judgment by Birmingham J., sitting with Mahon J. and Edwards J.

Earlier, sentencing at the Circuit Court had been adjourned on 21 November 2016. She had pleaded guilty to stealing €260,000 from client accounts. The proceedings were reported on 21 November 2016.

Judge Melanie Greally stood aside after saying there appeared to be connections between her wider family and Durcan’s wider family. She said it would not be appropriate for her to deal with the case and another judge would have to do so.

Durcan was running Durcan Solicitors in Castlebar, Co Mayo. Gardaí told the court she made five withdrawals of up to €100,000 from mixed client deposit accounts between 2008 and 2011. The court heard some money went on office expenditure and professional indemnity insurance, while €51,500 was used towards purchasing her own home in September 2010.

After learning that an audit was due in early 2011, Durcan alerted the Law Society to an accounts deficit. The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation was informed in 2013, and gardaí interviewed her in 2014.

The Law Society paid €206,184 in compensation claims in 2014, which Durcan had since repaid. She was struck off in 2011 and had no previous convictions.

Defence barrister Patrick Gageby SC said Durcan and her husband owed banks €6.5 million after property ventures brought catastrophic circumstances on their family. He said nobody had set out to enrich themselves and she had not set out to defraud clients. He described her as extremely remorseful and extremely unlikely to reoffend.