A 'gullible' Belfast lawyer who became the first solicitor to be jailed under proceeds of crime legislation was freed from prison last week after a Court of Appeal decision that exceptional circumstances meant the rest of his sentence should be suspended.

Gavin McCartan served only six weeks of his six-month sentence - but Lord Kerr, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, warned that a custodial sentence would be virtually inevitable for other solicitors convicted of such an offence.



He said McCartan - who had been presented with £70,000 in cash by the intermediary of a client he had never met (see [2004] Gazette, 14 October, 1) - had been 'gullible rather than malign'.



Lord Kerr said the offences committed were more likely to have been 'the product of a lapse in the high standards expected of a solicitor in his position rather than a desire to benefit from criminal activity'.


He noted that McCartan's professional life had been 'brought to an end' and that 'he and his family face an unenviable future.' He added that prison had had a 'devastating effect' on McCartan.