A SOLICITOR WHO has been suspended from practicing used more that €1m of a deceased client’s estate to buy his own house and other properties, the High Court has heard.

Money from the estate of Dónal Ó Súilleabháin was left to the Share fund of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, which is administered by the Archbishop of Dublin.

The firm of Seán Ó Ceallaigh and Company will be allowed to operate for at least another two weeks, as the Archbishop was today granted leave to be made a notice party to the proceedings being taken by the Law Society against the 52-year-old firm and solicitor Ruairí Ó Ceallaigh.

The court allowed Cormac Ó Ceallaigh, brother to the suspended Ruairí Ó Ceallaigh, to run the firm as they did not find any evidence that he had known about his brother’s actions.

The deficit in the accounts of Seán Ó Ceallaigh and Company amounts to €4.3m, the court heard.

Of the €2.4m of clients’ money that Ruairí Ó Ceallaigh used to buy property and gamble on the stock market, over half was from the estate of Dónal Ó Súilleabháin.