Judge refers judgments in daughter’s home fraud case to DPP

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

A High Court judge directed on 12 July 2023 that two judgments in a case involving the fraudulent transfer of Marie Gibson’s home be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Mr Justice Brian Cregan said the DPP would decide whether to bring criminal charges against her daughter, Pauline Gibson.

The judge found that Pauline Gibson had defrauded her parents of their home. He set aside the 2003 transfer, which was discovered in 2017 after the death of Marie’s husband, John Gibson. Pauline Gibson did not participate in the civil proceedings.

The court found that Pauline Gibson forged her parents’ signatures and obtained a €190,000 mortgage on the property, on which she later defaulted. The judge found that Marie and John Gibson had not been properly advised and received no benefit from the arrangement.

In a second judgment, the judge set aside the mortgage charge, found that the appointment of a receiver was invalid and directed that the property register be corrected. He awarded Marie Gibson €75,000 in punitive or exemplary damages for Pauline Gibson’s fraud and ordered solicitor Kevin O’Gorman to pay her €35,000 for negligence.

Kevin O’Gorman had said he advised the couple to consider the transaction carefully and believed they had received independent financial advice. The judge rejected his evidence and found that he had acted in a grossly negligent manner; he was not accused of fraud.

The court deferred a decision on referring its findings concerning Kevin O’Gorman to the Legal Services Regulation Authority, Revenue Commissioners and Law Society. Marie Gibson was awarded the vast bulk of her legal costs, but the costs orders were not finalised pending further submissions.