Disgraced former solicitor Michael Lynn, who is appealing his five-and-a-half-year sentence for stealing just over €18 million from six financial institutions during the Celtic Tiger era, has been told that “Irish society is a victim” of his offending.
“You become a member of an honourable profession that operates by professional standards, so if you breach that you let not just yourself down, you let your colleagues down and all of society down,” said Mr Justice John Edwards at the Court of Appeal on Monday during the sentence appeal of Michael Lynn.
Lynn was jailed for obtaining 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 €5.5 million home in Howth, and multiple investment properties.
He had to be extradited from Brazil in 2018 after spending years resisting attempts to have him face charges. As part of the extradition agreement with Brazil, Lynn was to be given credit for the prison time he has already served.
Lynn, of Millbrook Court, Redcross, Co. Wicklow, pleaded not guilty to theft contrary to section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud offences), but he was found guilty by a jury of ten of the 21 theft counts against him following a second Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial last year after the jury in his first trial in 2022 failed to reach a verdict.
He was sentenced by Judge Martin Nolan to five and a half years in prison having been convicted of stealing €18.1 million from six financial institutions.
Judge Nolan fixed the headline sentence at 16 years, before discounting three years for mitigation.
He subtracted a further seven and a half years because of time spent by Lynn in a Brazilian prison while awaiting extradition, and also because of the conditions of the prison in Brazil.
The judge also took into consideration 105 days Lynn spent in Cloverhill, with the sentence backdated to December 20, 2023.
Appealing the severity of the sentence, counsel for Lynn, Paul Comiskey O’Keefe BL said that because of the dearth of comparative case law, he was asking the court to focus on the “quantum of loss” in this case.
He said that this case featured a loss of €18 million, but he referenced other cases where the loss was multiples of this amount. He also said that the victims in this case were not left in dire financial circumstances from the appellant's offending.
To this, Mr Justice Edwards referenced the culpability and harm done, as the appellant was a solicitor, which meant there was public confidence in a person in his position.
“Even if there was no individual victim, it is Irish society that is a victim in that regard,” said Mr Justice Edwards, adding that Lynn had done “untold damage”.
Mr Comiskey O’Keefe replied that the community’s right to punishment can arise, but he said that Lynn was punished by being struck off as a solicitor.
Mr Justice Edwards said that because Lynn had been a solicitor, he had been in the position to know the implications of what he was doing, which meant he had breached his code of standards and professional ethics.
Mr Comiskey O’Keefe said that the commission of the offence did not take place in the performance of legal services, so as Lynn's actions were not carried out for a client, there had not been a breach of trust.
“You become a member of an honourable profession that operates by professional standards, so if you breach that you let not just yourself down, you let your colleagues down and all society down,” said Mr Justice Edwards.
Mr Justice Edwards went on to say that being struck off does not exonerate someone from facing criminal punishment, asking if a thief loses his job should he not have to face prison just because he has already lost his job.
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that the defence was overlooking the fact that the appellant’s actions would have lessened the overall image of solicitors.
She went on to address the societal impact, as if a bank loses money, that loss is passed down the line, so the general victim of this crime was society at large.
Mr Comiskey O’Keefe next said that the sentencing judge did not give sufficient weight to the recovery by financial institutions of certain losses, nor to the asset disposal by the appellant for the repayment of losses.
Mr Justice Edwards noted that “astronomical, eye watering figures” were involved.
Mr Comiskey O’Keefe repeated his assertion that not enough weight was given to the mitigating factor that this case involved a convicted person who is a solicitor who had not used a client’s account for the offending, to which Mr Justice Edwards said that was not mitigation, merely the absence of an aggravating factor.
Mr Comiskey O’Keefe next said that not enough weight was given to the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by Lynn because of the time he served in prison in Brazil, of which the sentencing judge took account.
During his trial, Lynn took the stand and 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.
He was extradited from Brazil in 2018 after spending four and a half years in a “hellhole” prison there. In the first trial, Lynn told the jury the jail was essentially run by prisoners, and he witnessed the beheading of a young gay prisoner.
Karl Finnegan SC, counsel for the DPP, said that there was nothing which indicated that the sentencing judge did anything that he was not entitled to do within his area of discretion, and there was no error of principle.
He described the seven and a half years mitigation given as extremely generous, as it was not sustainable to say that the final sentence was excessive. He said that during the trial, total loans of €36.5 million were identified, of which €27.85 million were on the indictment, with Lynn found guilty by the jury of offending covering just over €18 million.
“This was a complex scheme of offending that involved multiple loans from multiple institutions,” said Mr Finnegan, adding that Lynn used his position of trust to exploit weaknesses in the system.
Mr Finnegan said that another aggravating factor was that Lynn accused other witnesses of being complicit in this offending, which led to their characters being impugned.
“It’s unfortunate that he would continue to try to reduce his culpability. It should be measured by him alone and not on other people he may have been dealing with,” said Mr Finnegan.
He said the mitigating factors were limited by there not being a plea of guilty, nor any remorse shown by the appellant for his actions. He went on to say that the “global sentence” set by the sentencing judge made sense in this case, which was one of the greatest thefts in the history of the State, carried out to amass as much wealth as possible.
Mr Justice Edwards said the court would reserve judgement in the case.
