Robert Sweeney
Allegation / charges
In the matter of Robert Sweeney, a solicitor previously practising as Robert Sweeney, First Floor, Crossview House, High Road, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, and in the matter of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2011 [10658/DT189/13 and High Court record 2014 no 131 SA] Law Society of Ireland (applicant) Robert Sweeney (respondent solicitor) On 24 July 2014, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent solicitor guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor in that he had: 1) Allowed a shortfall of client funds in his practice of €168,816, as of 31 May 2012, 2) Allowed around 90 client ledger debit balances totalling €143,996, as of 31 May 2012, 3) Allowed undischarged stamp duty to remain in the office account, totalling €1,120, 4) Allowed further shortfalls on the client ledger client caused by the transfer of excess amounts for fees of €23,700, 5) Failed to keep books of account in accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations , 6) For purchases completed prior to 31 May 2012, allowed a minimum of 151 cases of unstamped deeds with a minimum of €371,949 of unpaid stamp duty, 7) Misled the committee at its meeting on 17 October 2012 with regard to the progress that was being made in respect to stamping the 151 unstamped deeds, 8) Lodged sales deposits to the office account in respect of two sales totalling €19,350, as set out in paragraph 3.4 of the report of 22 November 2012, 9) Lodged clients’ moneys in the office account, in breach of the regulations, as set out in the investigating accountant’s report of 14 June 2012. The tribunal ordered that the matter should go forward to the High Court and, on 2 November 2015, in proceedings entitled 2014 no 131 SA, the President of the High Court ordered on consent that: 1) The name of the respondent solicitor shall be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, 2) The respondent solicitor pay the costs of the Society before the disciplinary tribunal and the costs of the High Court proceedings, such costs to be taxed in default of agreement.
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Robert Sweeney guilty of misconduct including a client funds shortfall of €168,816, numerous client ledger debit balances, failure to keep proper books of account, over €371,949 in unpaid stamp duty on 151 unstamped deeds, and misleading the committee about progress on stamping deeds. On 2 November 2015 the President of the High Court ordered on consent that his name be struck from the Roll of Solicitors and that he pay the Society's costs before the tribunal and the High Court proceedings. No express finding of dishonesty was recorded, though misleading the committee was found as misconduct.
Duties found breached:
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
Other decisions involving this respondent
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
No documents recorded.
Source: https://www.lawsociety.ie/Public/disciplinarysearch/