A Derry solicitor has faced the local courthouse today on a raft of false accounting charges.
Damien McDaid, from 42 Templegrove in the city, was in the dock of Derry Magistrates’ Court for a preliminary inquiry.
The 41-year-old is accused of 61 false accounting offences between July 25, 2010 and January 6, 2012 relating to legal aid forms submitted to the NI Legal Services Commission.
The first count on the indictment reads:
“The defendant on a date unknown between 25th July 2010 and 1st December 2011, in the County Court Division of Derry, dishonestly and with a view to gain for yourself, or another or with intent to cause loss to another, falsified a document required for an accounting purpose namely a schedule of work done attached to a letter to the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission dated 30th November 2011 in respect of client Andrew Norry by making or concurring in the making of entries therein which were or may have been misleading, false or deceptive in a material particular, in that they purported to show hours actually spent engaged in the representation of the said Andrew Norry on 26th July 2010, when they did not contrary to Section 17(1)(a) of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969.”
The 60 remaining charges relate to other clients, both male and female, he claimed to have been representing.
McDaid was released on continuing bail.
He will appear at Derry Crown Court next month to be formally arraigned on all 61 charges.
The solicitor will then be asked if he pleads guilty or not guilty to the offences.
If he pleads not guilty, he will then be returned for trial by jury on a date to be fixed either later this year or early next year.
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