Former solicitor Thomas Byrne is facing up to 10 years in jail following the biggest white collar trial ever to come before the Irish courts.

The 47-year-old with an address at Mountjoy Square in Dublin has been convicted of deception, forgery, fraud and the theft of €52 million between 2004 and 2007.

For the most part, the separated father of three kept his head bowed as the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on all 50 charges, but he did manage a smile for his partner before being led away into custody.

He has been on bail up until now. He will be sentenced on December 2nd.

Judge Patrick McCartan directed that he receives his medication while in custody.

Former solicitor cheated his clients

During the 27-day trial, the jury heard how at the zenith of the Celtic Tiger the former solicitor forged documents transferring his clients' homes into his name.

One of the houses belonged to a 91-year-old woman, another was the home of his former piano teacher in Walkinstown, whose daughter Aideen Costigan gave evidence of her shock at finding out the deeds to the family home was in Thomas Byrne's name.

She said when they eventually got the house back, it had devalued greatly.

Thomas Byrne claimed that his former clients were lying to the court to ensure the Law Society would not accuse them of colluding with a disgraced solicitor as this would have jeopardised their chances of having property returned.

He said his clients had either agreed to sign over their property or to sell it to him on the basis that he would pay at a later date.

Multimillion euro theft

Thomas Byrne used his clients' properties as collateral for bank loans amounting to €51.8 million.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that at the height of the boom, one bank - KBC - believed the Dublin solicitor ran a consultancy business for fashion houses Prada, Chloé and Roberto Cavali.

When the house of cards fell down and the Law Society shut down his practice in Walkinstown in October 2007 the banks Byrne had borrowed from realised they did not have securities on the loans.

The whistleblower was Barbara Cooney, a junior solicitor at his office, who noticed her signature had been forged on legal documents.

Thomas Byrne spent four days giving evidence in his defence. He claimed that he and his family were under threat to get money from a developer called John Kelly.

He told the jury that he resorted to drinking heavily and at one point, near the end, feared for his life when he was brought into a walk-in shop freezer.

However instead of being killed he said he was given a hug and €10,000.

The prosecution characterised the former solicitor as a gambler who does not leave the table and called the scheme he masterminded 'harebrained'.