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A lawyer who is currently serving a three-year prison sentence for breaching the trust of a vulnerable elderly woman as her curator has been struck off the Roll of Solicitors.
Julie Ann Harrigan (36) pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent conversion on 15 November 2021.
She had made 46 transactions of between £200 and £2,000 from October 2015 until September 2017, from the bank accounts of an elderly woman in a care home into her personal account, totalling £29,000.
When that account began to deplete, she topped it up using money from another estate she was in charge of.
This money was bequeathed by a deceased lady to charity. More than £18,000 was supposed to go to the JSCPA but instead it went into the other woman’s account, which Harrigan continued to draw money from.
Pictured: The Attorney General successfully applied for Harrigan to be struck off the Roll of Solicitors.
Following Harrigan’s sentencing, the Attorney General, Mark Temple, applied to the Royal Court for an order that she be struck from the Roll of Solicitors of the Court, which the Bailiff, Timothy Le Cocq, sitting with Jurats Jane Ronge, Kim Averty and Dr Gareth Hughes granted.
In their judgment, they wrote: “It is difficult for the Court to identify a more egregious breach of fiduciary duty and trust than a breach not only of the oath of office of solicitor of this Court but of the oath of curator. Members of the public must be able to trust members of the legal profession totally to act with honesty and probity.”
Harrigan was the 76-year-old’s legal Curator and had sworn an oath in the Royal Court promising to manage her financial affairs honestly.
Whilst the Court noted Harrigan was facing “very difficult personal circumstances” at the time – her lawyer Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk told Court Harrigan’s life was falling apart and she was having difficulties in the workplace – they said it could provide “no excuse either to the criminal offence or to the application made by the Attorney General”.
Pictured: An Express report from 2017 on Harrigan being named Junior Lawyer of the Year.
Harrigan’s conduct came to light after the Tax Department informed her employer, Collas Crill, of its concerns about suspicious activity in relation to an estate she managed.
This led to the law firm conducting an internal investigation of all cases that she had responsibility for.
As a result of information gathered during the investigation, Harrigan was dismissed by Collas Crill in January 2018. She appealed the decision, but the dismissal decision was upheld at the end of that month.
A police investigation began in April 2018.
After being dismissed by Collas Crill, Harrigan returned to her native Ireland. Contacted by investigating officers, she was due to return voluntarily in March 2020 but failed to do so.
The pandemic arrived, which then prevented her return but she eventually came back this September. She was immediately arrested and remanded in custody, pleading guilty at the first opportunity she could.
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