A former solicitor who admitted defrauding the estates of three deceased clients has been spared jail.
Gerald Henvey overcharged his professional fees, failed to pay money to charities which was specified in wills and ploughed the defrauded funds into his solicitors firm.
From Cranmore Gardens in Belfast, Henvey was handed a two-year sentence which was suspended for two years by Judge Philip Gilpin.
Belfast Crown Court heard that the 68-year grandfather has paid back all the money, which was up to £84,150.
His offending occurred against the estates of three female clients between October 2007 and July 2012.
Henvey admitted that on all three occasions, as a solicitor he dishonestly abused his position by overcharging professional fees with the intention of making a gain for himself or causing a loss to the estates of his clients.
The father-of-four also admitted that on October 8 2008, he paid the brother of one of his deceased clients ‘without authority’.
The court heard the offending first emerged in January 2013 following a routine inspection of Henvey Solicitors by an accountant from the Law Society.
The accountant examined client ledgers and bank accounts and a number of financial anomalies were discovered.
Regarding one deceased client, the ‘residue’ of her estate was to be split equally between a number of charities - none of whom had received any money at the time of the Law Society inspection.
Due to his offending, Henvey was struck off as a solicitor in November 2015 and following a detailed investigation involving the Law Society and the PSNI, Henvey was interviewed by police in July 2023.
He told officers that during the economic crisis in 2007/08, his solicitor’s firm experienced a “downward spiral”.
Henvey said that during this period, he didn’t want to cut staff wages or make redundancies.
The money that should have been given to the charities was initially paid by the Law Society’s Compensation Fund but these funds were eventually re-paid back to the Law Society by Henvey when he closed his practice.
A Crown barrister told Judge Gilpin that as a result “there is no financial loss at this stage to anyone.”
A defence barrister said Henvey was “filled with remorse” regarding his actions and revealed there has been no further offending.
Judge Gilpin told Henvey: “You were a solicitor and as such a high degree of trust was placed on you by the public at the time of your offending.
“I also note that your offending has caused a destruction of your career and of your reputation, albeit that is entirely self-inflicted.”