Former district court judge Heather Perrin has been sentenced to two years in jail for false accounting involving inheritance money held on trust for a child.
The 61-year-old, who is already serving two-and-a-half years in jail for dishonesty involving another client, will not serve any additional time in prison.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told Perrin was investigated by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation after a shortfall was discovered in a client account.
Perrin had wrongly deducted fees for unrelated work from the child's money.
She had also produced an eight-page accounting document, which the prosecution said was "a retrospective attempt to reconcile" the figures.
A number of discrepancies were uncovered in the accounts relating to the child's €150,000 inheritance, but the eventual shortfall was just over €2,000.
She had also failed to place it in a separate account.
The court was told the boy's mother had requested the money be placed in a high interest account.
She was also told by Perrin the money could not be accessed without court permission when no such order was in place.
When Perrin was appointed a judge, she met her client and told her not to deal with the new firm of solicitors or to tell them about their meeting.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of false accounting weeks before she was due to go on trial.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring said it was the second time Perrin had been before the court for dishonesty involving a client.
She said trust between solicitor and client was fundamental and added that sensitive matters like these should never have to come before a court.
She backdated the two-year sentence to February last when Perrin pleaded guilty.
Defence Counsel Paul Burns told the court if there was any shortfall remaining in the account it would be addressed.
He said her accounting practice was haphazard and chaotic and she apologised for what had happened.
Wrongdoing by a solicitor was always a grave concern, he said, but added that when matters were netted down it was a relatively low amount of money involved.
He asked the court to take into account her cooperation with gardaí and her guilty plea and to show leniency.
He said Perrin was serving a substantial prison sentence and her main difficulty was sleeping.
He handed in testimonials and medical reports.
Perrin was jailed last November for two-and-a-half years after a jury found she had induced an elderly client into including her children as major beneficiaries in his will.
The offences took place while she was a solicitor and were discovered after another firm took over her practice.
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