Fake barrister and personal insolvency practitioner

By Jessica Magee

A man who defrauded about 1,200 people after posing as a barrister and personal insolvency practitioner is to be sentenced later in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

David Williams (68) with an address in Sroughan, Blessington, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to multiple sample counts of deception on dates between January 2019 and June 2020.

He also admitted to charges of providing legal services while an unqualified person and acting as a personal insolvency practitioner while an unauthorised person during the same period.

Co-accused Crystal Talia (46) of the same address, pleaded guilty to impeding an investigation by allowing Williams to use her bank accounts.

In a separate bill, Williams pleaded guilty to defrauding a Galway woman in her 80s by dishonestly inducing her to buy a mini-digger for over €7,000.

At a hearing yesterday, Fionnuala O’Sullivan SC, prosecuting, told the court that Williams is not and never was a practicing barrister, nor was he ever on the Roll of Practising Barristers.

The court heard that Williams pleaded guilty on the day of his scheduled trial in July of this year, after he unsuccessfully sought to vacate the trial on medical grounds.

Detective Garda Keith Gorman told Ms O’Sullivan that Williams failed to attend his sentencing last week and so was brought before court yesterday on a warrant.

The court heard that the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau began to investigate a firm called THL Legal, which offered a range of legal services including advice about work permits, leave-to-remain applications and family reunifications.

Most of the people seeking advice were not of Irish origin and had paid sums averaging €1,500 to the company, the court heard.

THL had Facebook and Twitter accounts and a website advertising themselves as “a dynamic firm of experienced lawyers,” although the company was never a solicitors’ firm and was not registered with the Law Society, the court heard.

THL’s offices in Greenogue Business Park, Westmanstown, Rathcoole, Co Dublin were raided by gardaí who seized a large number of files including a client list with 1,200 names on it.

Williams then set up another legal firm called Moore, Barrington and Walters (MBW) which operated from November 2019 to May 2020, until its offices were also raided by gardaí.

Williams was arrested in May 2020, but already by June of that year, counsel said he was “toting himself out” as a personal insolvency practitioner in a third business called Global Business Recovery, or GBR.

The court heard that Talia and Williams were in a relationship and living together in Kildare with a number of children at the time of the offences.

She opened a bank account used for trading at THL and then MBW, into which unwitting victims transferred fees for what they believed would be legitimate legal services.

The court heard that as some of these clients realised that the relevant legal work they had requested was not being carried out, they began to report the firm to the gardaí or the Law Society.

Ms Sullivan gave an overview of 15 people who were defrauded by Williams, including people from South Africa, Libya, the Philippines, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Morocco, Egypt and Poland.

One victim from South Africa, who was working in Ireland, transferred €1,600 to THL Legal in order to get his daughter naturalised.

He was contacted months later by THL to say it couldn’t be done, but he didn’t get his money back.

Another Libyan man who was also working full time paid over €1,500 to Williams for help processing his visa application, but it never happened.

A Zimbabwean woman who was an Irish citizen paid €1,600 in instalments to THL to further her application for family reunification.

Another man living in Direct Provision paid €1,845 to THL after Williams said he could revoke his deportation order and get him a work permit.

An Irish woman whose son attended a birthday party hosted by Williams and Talia at GoCart in Naas told gardaí that her son had an accident at the party and required surgery.

She met Williams while visiting her son in hospital – he introduced himself as a barrister and said he “felt bad” about what had happened her son and wanted to take a case against GoCart.

Williams charged her legal fees of €3,410 but said these would be refunded – she got no resolution to the case and was not refunded.

In June 2020, an Irish plumber and farmer in trouble with loans got a call from Williams at Global Recovery Business, saying he could organise to settle the loans for a fee of €2,500.

Another Polish national whose martial arts academy got into financial difficulties during Covid went to Global Recovery Business, where Williams said he could sort out his debts for €5,000.

The victim gave him €2,000 plus his car.

After his arrest, Williams was interviewed six times by gardaí but said nothing of evidential value.

The court heard he was on bail for some of the offences when he committed others.

Talia was arrested in July 2020 and answered all questions.

She said Williams had set up THL Legal and asked her to set up a bank account that he could use for the business, as he said he was going through marital difficulties in the UK.

She has no previous convictions, while Williams has multiple, dating back to the 1970s, many of them from the UK.

The court heard that among Williams’ previous convictions are making false statements, obtaining property by deception, theft, trading with intent to defraud creditors, acting as an insolvency practitioner without qualifications and conspiracy to defraud.

Mark Lynam SC, defending Talia, said his client came to Ireland from Uganda with her husband in 2008, but they split up in 2012.

Counsel said Talia was working as a carer for Williams’ aunt when they started a relationship.

“She trusted and respected him. He showed her a lot of care and told her all about his assets,” Mr Lynam said, adding that these alleged assets included properties in the UK and Scotland and restaurants in the Cayman Islands.

Det Gda Gorman agreed with counsel that Williams was “well-capable of being convincing and manipulative”.

The court heard that Williams told Talia he couldn’t set up a bank account for his business as he was going through a divorce and didn’t want his wife to come after him.

The prosecuting garda agreed that Talia was not involved in the day-to-day business of THL Legal or Williams’ other firms.

The court heard that when THL was raided, Williams told Talia it was because a solicitor who had been working there had done improper paperwork and that in order to look after all their clients, he needed to set up another company with another bank account in her name.

Talia agreed with gardaí that she had been reckless and “could have been more careful” but she said: “I trusted the man and felt safe. Stupid, maybe.”

The court heard that Talia has her own chocolate business and that Williams offered her some assistance and know-how.

Mr Lynam said Talia was a struggling single mother of three when she came into Williams’ orbit.

“He appeared to be extremely dynamic, caring and wealthy; she wanted it to be true but it was too good to be true.”

Counsel told the court that Talia split from Williams and is trying to move on with her life in a pro-social way and has completed a diploma in law at the King’s Inns. Her chocolate business is beginning to grow and she has four employees, the court heard.

Mr Lynam asked the court to treat Talia’s offence as at the lower end of the scale.

Det Gda Gorman also gave evidence in the second bill to Caroline Lantham BL, prosecuting, in which Williams admitted defrauding a Galway woman in her 80s.

He pleaded guilty to dishonestly inducing the woman to buy a Kuboto U27 mini-digger for the sum of €7,841, which included transport of the digger from the UK.

The court heard that the woman had become acquainted with Williams as he had been carrying out work at her relative’s office.

She told Williams she was looking to buy a mini-digger and he said he could source repossessed machinery in the UK.

Williams directed her to a Facebook page called Fast Buy Equipment and put her in contact with an unknown vendor who negotiated a deal of £6,600 sterling plus £500 transport.

Williams gave her the IBAN of his account in Blessington Credit Union but she resisted pressure to immediately transfer the funds as she wished to see an invoice and a photo of the VIM number of the digger.

Williams gave her a photo purporting to be of the VIM plate of the machine, but gardaí traced this digger using a watermark on the photo to a third party sale which had nothing to do with Williams.

Gardaí were able to fully refund the money to the woman, who declined to make a victim impact statement.

However numerous victim impact statements for other injured parties in the first bill were handed into the court but not read aloud.

Padraic Dwyer SC, defending Williams in the first bill, asked the court for time to gather character references and requested a probation report.

Judge Orla Crowe refused to order a probation report but agreed to a request for some time to allow Williams, who has a sheep farm in Naas, Co Kildare, to get his affairs in order.

Judge Crowe remanded both Williams and Talia on continuing bail for finalisation on December 13

Mr Dwyer will present mitigation for Williams on the next date.

The court heard that he has a number of medical issues with appointments pending.