Money supposed to be left to charities was not paid to them
A former solicitor who admitted defrauding the estates of three deceased clients was spared jail today .
Henvey admitted that on all three occasions, as a solicitor he dishonestly abused his position by overcharging professional fees with the intention of making a gain for himself or causing a loss to the estates of his clients. The father-of-four also admitted that on October 8, 2008, he paid the brother of one of his deceased clients ‘without authority’.
Regarding one deceased client, the ‘residue’ of her estate was to be split equally between a number of charities - none of whom had received any money at the time of the Law Society inspection in 2013. The inspection revealed Henvey had overcharged her estate and had also paid the deceased woman’s brother £11,500 ‘without authority’.
Due to his offending, Henvey was struck off as a solicitor in November 2015 and following a detailed investigation involving the Law Society and the PSNI, Henvey was interviewed by police in July, 2023. He told officers that during the economic crisis in 2007/08, his solicitor’s firm experienced a ‘downward spiral’. Henvey said that during this period, he didn’t want to cut staff wages or make redundancies.
A defence barrister said Henvey was “filled with remorse” regarding his actions and revealed there has been no further offending. Pointing out that Henvey made “full and frank admissions at an early stage” to police, the barrister said also raised the issue of delay in the case as well as the impact the proceedings have had both on Henvey and his family.
Judge Gilpin also spoke of several ‘exceptional’ circumstances linked to the case. This, he said, included the delay as today’s sentence hearing was “11 years after the matters first came to light”.
PSNI South Belfast Malone Road Lisburn Road Belfast Crown Court
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