Decision record
Mark Cronin
Allegation / charges
In the matter of Mark Cronin, solicitor, formerly practising as Cronin Kenneally & Company and as Cronin Mungovan, The Square, Macroom, Co Cork, and in the matter of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2011 [10550/DT127/12 and 2013 no 85 SA] Law Society of Ireland (applicant) Mark Cronin (respondent solicitor) On 6 June 2013, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent solicitor guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor in that he: a) Allowed a deficit in client moneys of €249,364 as of 24 January 2012, b) Misappropriated €48,500, being the balance of a deposit in a conveyancing transaction, set out in paragraph 4.2 of the Society’s report of 26 January 2012, c) Altered a photocopy of a bank draft in the above conveyancing transaction by €100,000, as set out in paragraph 4.2 of the above report of 26 January 2012, d) Misappropriated €170,000 received in respect of the purchase proceeds of a holiday home for a client in 2011, as set out in the Society’s report of 14 February 2012, e) Misappropriated €30,864 of client funds in a probate matter, as set out in paragraph 4.3 of the above report of 26 January 2012, f) Misappropriated €32,275 of funds of €38,249 received from a client at a time when there were no funds in the client account on 27 May 2011, as set out in paragraph 6 of the Society’s memorandum of 14 February 2012, g) Altered a photocopy of a bank draft by changing it from €223,500 to €323,500 in September 2010, as set out in the Society’s investigation memorandum of 29 March 2012, in order to conceal misappropriation of client funds, h) Engaged in a practice of teeming and lading to hide the misappropriated client moneys, i) Caused claims of €250,000 to be paid from the compensation fund to date in respect of his practice. The tribunal ordered that the Society bring their findings to the High Court and, on 14 October 2013, the High Court ordered that: a) The respondent solicitor’s name should be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, b) The respondent solicitor make restitution to the Society’s compensation fund in respect of all funds paid for claims in respect of his former practice, c) The Society recover €2,500 from the respondent solicitor as a contribution towards the Society’s costs of the proceedings before the disciplinary tribunal, d) The respondent solicitor pay to the Society the cost of the proceedings in the High Court, 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 Mark Cronin guilty of misconduct involving a client account deficit of €249,364, multiple misappropriations of client funds, alteration of bank draft photocopies, and teeming and lading to conceal the misappropriations, with €250,000 paid from the compensation fund. The High Court ordered his name struck from the Roll of Solicitors, restitution to the compensation fund, €2,500 costs contribution for the tribunal proceedings, and payment of taxed High Court costs. No express finding of dishonesty is recorded in the text.
Duties found breached:
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
Documents
No documents recorded.
Source: https://www.lawsociety.ie/Public/disciplinarysearch?viewAll=True