Solicitor stole almost £1m from firm and clients to fund horse racing obsession

Handing Samuel Graham Keys a four-and-a-half year sentence, Judge Neil Rafferty QC told the 64-year-old that his offending had an impact on both his former firm, his former partners and the confidence of the legal profession as a whole.

Keys, from Lurgan Road in Glenavy, was sacked from his role as a partner with Diamond Herron Solicitors as soon as his offending emerged in August 2015.

Over a period spanning from March 2006 to July 2015, Keys helped himself to £856,714.89 from the clients’ account and to £83,931.01 from the company’s account – with the totality of his offending amounting to £940,645.90.

Belfast Crown Court heard Keys had an interest in “the purchase, breeding and training of horses which allowed him access to a social life which might otherwise not have been accessible to him”.

The court also heard there has been no repayment of any of the money the father of three stole.

He admitted a total of 21 charges consisting of 19 counts of fraud by abuse of position, nine counts of false accounting and two counts of theft. Keys will serve half his sentence in prison, followed by a period of two years and three months on licence when he is released.

Crown prosecutor David Russell said that over a period of almost 10 years, Keys was able to use his position in the law firm to create false documents and false entries to try and conceal his offending.

His offending began to emerge in August 2015 when police made the company aware of suspicious activity in relation to a cheque from the clients account being lodged into Keys’ personal account.

Keys had been a partner since 2001, and when police alerted the firm, an internal audit was launched. At this stage, Keys admitted lodging two cheques from the client account into his own account, and was immediately expelled.

Mr Russell said as a result of Keys’ offending, the remaining four partners ploughed £50,000 each of their own money into the firm as an “immediate reaction, to try and maintain the confidence of its clients”.

The prosecutor said that whilst there was initial uncertainty surrounding the future of the firm, no-one lost their jobs and the firm “thankfully has recovered”.

He said there was “no prospect of repayment” from Keys, who has since been declared bankrupt.

Defence barrister Frank O’Donoghue QC said Keys “accepted unequivocally” that he was responsible for “creating havoc with his own firm”.

Offering an apology from Keys to both the firm and its clients, Mr O’Donoghue said his conduct was “frankly unforgivable but completely and utterly out of character”.

Mr O’Donoghue revealed that Keys’ offending was linked to his association with race horses, which provided a social life and “alternative world” that needed funded.

Describing Keys’ fall from grave as “catastrophic”, Mr O’Donoghue said that after losing his job, Keys was now living in a one-bedroomed flat on benefits.