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Solicitors and other lawyers making the bad news from 2003 to date: News Roundup
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Public Could face prison in new Email Scam A Warning of a new kind of scam has been issued by specialist fraud protection company Early Warning today. The latest scam, which is becoming as wide spread as the 419 scams, is the lucrative offer of working part time from your own home for bogus overseas companies...Early Warning warns all members of the public not to fall for this chance of earning easy money as they could face a long term of imprisonment for money laundering, as the monies you will be handling are most likely to be the proceeds of crime. |
28 Feb |
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Former solicitor jailed for theft A former Anglesey solicitor who stole £143,000 from clients has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Stephen Puleston Williams, 50, from Holyhead, stole the money from clients over a three-year period. He admitted theft and forgery at Chester Crown Court before being sentenced on Tuesday. |
28 Feb |
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OFT ticks off Law Soc over price disclosures The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has fired a warning shot to the Law Society and its members after it found the Surrey Law Society guilty of anticompetitive pricing practices. Graham Horgan, OFT professional services division head, said that circulating pricing information among solicitors was an anticompetitive practice. "From our perspective, we would consider this behaviour most likely to result in an increase in prices by solicitors," he said. "In a worst-case scenario, solicitors could set their prices in a collusive way with the knowledge of what other local litigators are charging." |
28 Feb |
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City watchdog urges more vigilance on insider fraud Financial services companies must work harder to crack down on fraud as losses resulting from scams rose close to £1bn last year, the City watchdog warns. The Financial Services Authority said in a report published yesterday that the City needed to be more alert to the growing threat of insider fraud perpetrated by employees with links to criminal gangs. |
28 Feb |
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Rich pickings for fraudsters as £1bn is stolen from Scottish companies WHEN solicitor Derek Walker discovered a fellow partner had helped himself to £600,000 of their clients' cash, he knew his firm would face an uphill battle to stay in business. The partner was jailed for diverting funds from clients' wills, but the firm was rocked by the incident. Walker says it was a sobering experience and there are lessons for others to learn. "For the partners, it was like finding your wife in bed with your best friend. You need internal checks and balances and accounts, which we thought we had, but they obviously were not enough." (See also: Open to Persuasion?) |
28 Feb |
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Law Society urges solicitors to refund miners SOLICITORS are being urged by their regulatory body to repay millions of pounds that they deducted from compensation awards for sick miners. In an unprecedented move, the Law Society has written to the senior partners of more than 500 firms in England and Wales highlighting the damage that their greed has caused to the profession. The letter says that the coal health claims scandal, exposed by The Times last year, has severely dented public confidence in solicitors. |
28 Feb |
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Law Society comes down hard on miners' solicitors Solicitors
are accused of reaping extra fees in compensation cases. |
28 Feb |
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Law Society fires off warning over breach in Hadrian’s Wall The Law Society of Scotland has warned of the dangers inherent in new moves to modernise legal services in England and Wales, which will have major implications north of the border. The society's director of legal reform, Michael Clancy, issued stark warnings about the prospect of state interference in the Scottish profession and the absence of an effective means of policing multidisciplinary practices. |
27 Feb |
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Abducted accountant's deals probed DETECTIVES investigating the abduction of accountant Andrew Ramsay are examining his past business dealings. Ramsay, 51, was snatched as he walked along the street outside his home with his partner Beverley Sinclair last Wednesday night by two men posing as police officers. |
26 Feb |
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Even the savvy get scammed The Office of Fair Trading is running a month-long campaign to highlight the dangers of sophisticated scams. Two victims of scams tell the BBC News website how they fell victim and explain the lessons they learnt. Both men were caught out by print advertisements. Steve Maunsell invested £64,000 in a scrap metal business that didn't exist, while Vadim Yekelchik ended up taking a bogus interpreting firm to court. Their experience suggests intelligent people are just as susceptible to an elaborate hoax as anyone else. (Oh, that's a relief. UJ) |
24 Feb |
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NHS finance boss jailed for fraud A former hospital manager has been jailed for four years for stealing nearly £600,000 in funds supposed to be used for patient care. Joy Henry, 47, used a 'loophole' in a King's College Hospital's salary system to plunder the cash earmarked for patient care. |
24 Feb |
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Accountant is abducted before he can testify in High Court AN ACCOUNTANT due to appear as a witness in a criminal trial has been abducted by two men posing as plain-clothes police officers. Andrew Ramsay, 51, has not been seen since he got into the men's car in Glasgow on Wednesday night after they told him he was under arrest. Police said last night that they were becoming "increasingly concerned" for his safety and wellbeing. |
24 Feb |
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Police smash '£3m bank fraud ring' Police have arrested 13 people in connection with a suspected multi-million pound banking fraud. The eight men and five women werearrested in a series of early morning raids in London and Bradford, West Yorkshire. A member of staff from a bank in Ealing was among those arrested. |
22 Feb |
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UK in hi-tech fraud firing line Britons are increasingly being targeted by internet and telephone scams, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said. Fraudsters are making greater use of low-cost mass-marketing techniques such as sending spam emails and bogus text messages, the OFT added. |
22 Feb |
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Who do you turn to in times of trouble? The Criminal Bar is expecting change — the Lord Chancellor has told them to. What do the Old Defenders make of things? “THERE is a growing hostility to lawyers in society. We need to change the way law is done in Britain,” Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, said recently. |
21 Feb |
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Firms should aid ID theft victims Firms should do more
to support identity theft victims, the National Consumer Council (NCC) has
said. |
17 Feb |
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Surprise results from scams research Younger, more affluent consumers are just as likely as older consumer to be targeted by scammers, new research by the OFT has revealed. Early results from a major research project commissioned by the OFT show that nearly half of the UK population – or 20 million consumers over the age of 15 – have been targeted by a scam. Download the Scambuster guide in pdf format. |
16 Feb |
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Solicitors to adopt internet - by 2010 MAJOR hold-ups for homebuyers and sellers could be eased within four years if solicitors adopt a new system – the internet. |
15 Feb |
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Effective use of Magistrates’ Court Hearings £173 million was spent last year on trials and hearings in magistrates’ courts that did not go ahead as planned. Of this, nearly £24 million was due to the Crown Prosecution Service. The National Audit Office calculate that 28 per cent (784,000 annually) of all pre-trial hearings in magistrates’ courts do not proceed on the scheduled day, and are adjourned to a later date. |
15 Feb |
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Fraud risk as half of cardholders write down their PINs NEARLY half of credit and debit cardholders admit they have written down their PIN in case they forget it, a new survey has found. Around 15 per cent of people said they even carried a written note of their pin around with them in their wallet, despite the fact that this makes them particularly vulnerable to fraud if their wallet is stolen. |
14 Feb |
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Katrina cards sparked massive fraud WASHINGTON: The $US2000 debit cards issued after Hurricane Katrina to buy emergency supplies were used in some cases to pay for gambling, pornographic movies, tattoos and even a diamond engagement ring, according to two government reports that detail grotesque fraud and mismanagement in which hundreds of millions of dollars were squandered. |
14 Feb |
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EU-US cartel probe hits airlines A number of airlines including British Airways are being investigated as part of a European and US cartel probe. Investigators launched dawn raids, and British Airways said the European Commission and the US Department of Justice had asked it for information. |
14 Feb |
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Policewoman in serious condition A 23-year-old policewoman is in a serious but stable condition in hospital after being shot while investigating a burglary in Nottingham. Rachael Bown, a probationary officer, was shot as she investigated a burglary shortly before midnight on Monday. |
14 Feb |
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Financial Times for example |
14 Feb |
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Closing the door to legal aid for the rich Labour is to reintroduce a test to stop the wealthy getting legal aid. So why was it scrapped in the first place? NOTHING has done more to discredit legal aid than reports of millions of pounds of public money apparently being squandered on the super-rich. |
13 Feb |
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Banks hide true level of card crime HALF a billion pounds stolen from bank and credit card accounts each year is not being reported to the police by financial institutions, a Scotland on Sunday investigation has found. |
12 Feb |
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Family's shock as killer lawyer may be free next year LAWYER Christopher Lumsden could be out of prison in just 19 months after he was convicted of stabbing his unfaithful wife to death. |
12 Feb |
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Action over endowment mis-selling Thousands of mortgage endowment policyholders in Scotland are being urged to join an action group aimed at changing the law and winning full compensation from solicitors who mis-sold their policies. |
12 Feb |
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Solicitors lost my house "GETTING an explanation from Wirral solicitors BBH has not been easy. At first they ignored me, which is not a good idea. Then they offered a full comment in a week's time, only to tell me after a week that they needed your signed authority to talk to me - a signed authority I had given them weeks earlier." |
12 Feb |
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Top lawyer admits tax offences ONE of Sheffield's top prosecuting lawyers faces a fine of up to £50,000 after pleading guilty to 10 tax offences. Barrister Philip Bingham - who was declared bankrupt last year - has admitted breaking the law by charging for his legal services without paying a £36,000 VAT security in advance. |
09 Feb |
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Solicitor elated at swindling acquittal A former Ulster Unionist Party councillor accused of swindling the Northern Ireland Tourist Board of over £7,000 has spoken of his "elation" after he was unanimously acquitted of all charges against him. There were emotional scenes at Armagh Courthouse yesterday evening when Raymond Ferguson, a 64-year old solicitor who served on Fermanagh District Council until May last year, was found 'not guilty' of two charges of forgery and one of false accounting. |
09 Feb |
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Firms 'to bid for legal aid work' Lawyers will have to bid competitively for all legal aid work generated by groups of police stations in England and Wales under new proposals. This would end the long-standing arrangements where solicitors are paid by the hour for legal aid work. |
09 Feb |
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Judicial system revamp outlined Scotland's top judge will be given more powers over the judicial system under plans announced by the Executive. The Lord President, who currently presides over High Court judges, would also oversee sheriffs in a new role as head of a unified Scottish judiciary. |
09 Feb |
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Professional Negligence: Under the magnifying glass The office for legal complaints will transform the way consumers can seek redress; this regulatory shake-up, combined with a change in the way courts are viewing poor service from the legal profession will shape a new environment for solicitors accused of negligence. |
09 Feb |
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Professional Negligence: Price of dishonesty In the wake of recent corporate scandals, the involvement of professionals in fraud or other acts of wrongdoing remains in the spotlight, with them being subjected to ever more rigorous regulation. |
09 Feb |
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Ex-chief justice's legal aid fear It is a "myth" to think the civil courts can be self-financing, the UK's former top judge has said as he criticised cuts to legal aid. Lord Woolf, who retired as lord chief justice last year, said he shared worries that the "extraordinarily good" legal aid system had disappeared. |
08 Feb |
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FSA removes money laundering rule The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is streamlining its detailed rules on money laundering - by removing them. Firms will still be required to have money laundering reporting officers, check the identity of clients, and report any suspected money laundering. |
07 Feb |
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Solicitor who smuggled drugs into Barlinnie named A solicitor who admitted smuggling drugs into Glasgow's Barlinnie prison can now be named. It follows a successful legal challenge by lawyers from media companies including Scottish Television to a High Court ruling that Angela Baillie's name should be kept out of the press. She is now facing a lengthy prison sentence after pleading guilty. |
07 Feb |
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Lawyer supplied drugs to prisoner A solicitor has admitted supplying drugs to a Barlinnie Prison inmate. Heroin and diazepam with a street value of more than £1,600 were handed over in a cigarette packet which had been opened and resealed, the court heard. |
06 Feb |
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Top lawyer killed wife in vicious knife attack A partner at one of Britain’s biggest law firms stabbed his wife to death in a "ferocious" attack just days after she told him she was having an affair, a court heard today. Christopher Lumsden, 52, used a kitchen knife to stab his wife Alison in the neck, face and back as she sat at a dressing table in the bedroom of their home near Altrincham, Cheshire, on the evening of March 16 last year. |
06 Feb |
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How ID fraudsters target the dead Criminals who impersonate dead people are responsible for the fastest growing identity theft crime in the UK. At a time when bereaved relatives are coming to terms with the death of a loved one, fraudsters are enjoying rich pickings and their crime may go undetected for some time. |
06 Feb |
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The Law Society invites views about legal services reforms, launching an online survey. "The Law Society is changing. Forget your preconceptions- think about what you really want from the Law Society. Radical changes lie ahead for the profession; the government is preparing to enact legal services reforms. We believe solicitors need a strong professional body, championing their cause. What sort of Law Society will you, your firm, or your legal department need?" Survey closes 21 April 2006 |
05 Feb |
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Huge payout highlights true scale of dishonesty by solicitors THE legal establishment has paid out nearly £1 million to clients robbed by crooked solicitors in recent years, The Scotsman has learned. The Law Society of Scotland repaid £910,000 between 1999-2000 and 2003-4 to members of the public who had had money stolen from them by solicitors. |
04 Feb |
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City firms targeted by world-wide e-mail scam City firm Travers Smith has placed a warning on its Web site after bogus e-mails purporting to be from the firm have been sent around the world as part of a Nigerian ‘419’ scam. Charles Russell’s name has also been used in a similar scam, and it is understood that other City firms have also been targeted. The e-mails claim to be from Travers Smith or other firms, often using the name of a current or former employee. The e-mails inform recipients that they have inherited a substantial sum of money – one e-mail cites the sum of $3.1 million (£1.7 million). They then and go on to ask the recipients for personal details, which are used to clear out bank accounts, or money, which is then stolen. |
03 Feb |
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ID theft 'costs UK £1.7bn a year' Identity fraud is costing the UK an estimated £1.7bn every year, Home Office Minister Andy Burnham has said. |
02 Feb |
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BBC shakes up legal in cost-cutting drive The BBC’s legal department has axed its property team and halved its roster of legal advisers as part of a major internal shake-up in response to director general Mark Thompson’s ‘Value for Money’ review of the corporation. |
02 Feb |
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Lawyers to lose court monopoly after inquiry PEOPLE other than lawyers are set to be allowed to represent clients in Scotland's courts for the first time, a move that will end centuries of tradition. |
02 Feb |
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Sleazy side of legal profession AS Leslie Cumming lay bleeding outside his Murrayfield home, the victim of a frenzied stabbing, his cool legal brain was probably already clicking into gear...""Most successful frauds involve several strands and depend on a position of particular power or influence. The hardest to uncover are those where there's an element of complicity..." |
01 Feb |
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Lawyer calls for more 'court TV' A lawyer has criticised the Scottish legal system for allowing court proceedings to remain a "hidden world". BBC Scotland lawyer Alistair Bonnington, a professor in media law, believes cameras should be allowed to record daily proceedings. |
01 Feb |
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Did knifeman lay in wait for 10 hours? THE knifeman who brutally stabbed an Edinburgh law chief outside his home may have lain in wait for his target for ten hours, police said today. One week after the attack on 62-year-old Leslie Cummings, detectives said they were more convinced than ever that the stabbing was the work of a hit man or someone else bent on revenge. |
31 Jan |
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Second-hand PCs help ID thieves People are putting themselves at risk from identity theft by failing to remove personal information from computers before they get rid of them, a report has warned. |
31 Jan |
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In-house work set to dent lawyers' earnings Lawyers' hopes of increasing earnings from litigation and arbitration could be dashed by their clients' plans to cut spending on dispute resolution, according to research published today. |
31 Jan |
DURHAM, N.C