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Date posted on UnjustIS

Junk mail scams 'using lawyers'

Gangs targeting vulnerable people with letters about bogus competitions are using legal teams to stay ahead of the law, the BBC has learned. In what has become a multi-billion pound industry, risk assessors are also being employed by scammers, according to the Office of Fair Trading. The watchdog has told the BBC that new consumer protection laws can do little to stop the actions. The scams, which target millions of people, earn about £3.5bn a year.

BBC

31 May

Scottish law society asks public to set solicitors standards

The Law Society of Scotland is asking members of the public to help with a project to set standards of service and behaviour for solicitors. The Society is asking members of the public to complete an online questionnaire so that the society can clarify what those using legal services can expect from their solicitor. A reference group of representatives from a range of non-legal organisations have also helped with the project.

Legal & Medical

30 May

Seven years for money launderer

A PROPERTY magnate from Canons Park who laundered at least £13.8m with an Ealing lawyer has been jailed for seven years. John Donnan, 52, of Watersfield Way, ran a series of bogus companies with his solicitor, Gerard Hyde, 55, of Priory Gardens, allowing friends to operate a 16-month VAT fraud. The firms imported mobile phones tax free but sold them on with an extra 17.5 per cent profit, which was then shared with Donnan and Hyde.

Harrow Times

24 May

ET COMMENT: Why we ran deputy mayor story... 20/05/2008

THE appointment of Gul Nawaz as deputy mayor is controversial.
He has a conviction for benefit fraud and, like it or not, that will be a discussion point, even more so if, and when, he becomes mayor. Councillor Nawaz is very popular in his ward and works hard. He has committed a crime and done his time and eryone deserves a fresh start. The concern about his appointment is as much about the timing as it it is about a past misdemeanour. A former mayor of the city has recently been jailed after being found guilty of vote rigging. To appoint a deputy mayor with a previous conviction for benefit fraud so soon after this clearly runs the risk of creating a poor perception of the city. But the appointment has been made now and the protests and concerns have been heard. It's now up to Cllr Nawaz to do the city proud. Just as concerning from the ET's point of view are the strong-arm tactics used to drive the appointment through. An e-mail to all Tory councillors warned them that there was a whip on the vote and asked them not to attend if they felt they could not support the nomination of Cllr Nawaz. Yesterday, in an extraordinary move, the ET was asked not to run the story of his nomination in a note forwarded by the authority's communcations team. In the words of the request we were asked to pull the story because "it may manipulate the democratic process". Perhaps the democratic integrity of the nomination has been manipulated, but not because we chose to let the people of Peterborough know who was being put forward as their deputy mayor, but rather because the council's leader seemed strangely determined to stifle our coverage of it. (A strange and worrying story. UJ)

Peterborough Today

22 may

Pop mogul gets 25 years for fraud

Boy band mogul Lou Pearlman, who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a $300m (£153m) fraud. Pearlman swindled family, friends, investors and banks by enticing them to put money into two fake companies for 20 years. He pleaded guilty in March. As part of a plea agreement, he pledged to help prosecute his accomplices. Judge G Kendall Sharp said he would reduce the term by one month for every $1m (£0.5m) he gave back to victims. Prosecutors counted at least 250 individual victims who lost a total of $200m (£102m), plus 10 financial institutions that lost $100m (£51m).

BBC

22 May

Keeping on top of the money

The legal sector is under fire again over excessive fees. Allen & Overy has been criticised widely after a scathing High Court judgment highlighted that the firm charged more than £5 million of costs during a five-day trial. That, in turn, came after criticisms of the legal fees relating to the BCCI and Equitable Life litigations; again the portrayals were of a money-grabbing sector — regardless of the results for clients. Law firms always will be criticised over the fees they charge. But do they deserve it? Whichever side of the fence you sit on, the principle is the same: firms need to change the way they work and demonstrate that they provide value for money. If they don’t, clients will look elsewhere.

Times Online

20 May

No need to panic - he admires lawyers

It’s a tough and unattractive brief, keeping lawyers in order. But David Edmonds clearly wants to do it — and not for the money, he adds: although a £63,000 salary for 70 days a year will surely help to ease any downside. So why would he take on the chairmanship of the Legal Services Board, the new arch regulator of the legal profession? “What really attracted me [he was headhunted] was the thought of setting up a new organisation, whose prime objective was to do with consumer benefit. I spent five years as director-general at Oftel, the telecoms regulator, and helped to set up Ofcom, so I’ve experience of creating a new organisation.”

Times Online

20 May

Rising cost of incapacity benefit

The annual cost of paying benefits to people "on the sick" is now higher than the estimated cost of staging the London Olympics, it was reported. Figures provided to Panorama on BBC One by the Department for Work and Pensions show the annual bill for paying incapacity benefits, including associated housing benefit and council tax benefit, has reached £16 billion. The cost of staging the 2012 Olympics is estimated at less than £10 billion...Department of Health figures show that people who are on incapacity benefit for one year are likely to stay there for eight. Once they have been there for two years or more, they are more likely to die or retire than work again. Official figures say nine out of 10 of those who come on to incapacity benefit want to come back to work. Many complain of conditions such as back and neck pain, depression or heart and circulatory problems, which the Government believes do not make long-term unemployment inevitable. A new medical test for incapacity benefit claimants is set to be introduced in October this year. It will assess what an individual can - rather than cannot - do. Everyone applying for the new allowance will have to take the test, and it is estimated half of those will not pass. It will replace the current personal capability assessment, which is weighted more towards a person's physical disability and bases itself around assessing people's incapability for work. (Bring back the workhouses for these freeloading spongers, or re-introduce slavery. That'll make them pull themselves together. UJ)

The Press Association

See also:

Is Labour abolishing illness?

Original article

19 May

Lawyers' protest backfires as court runs quicker without them

A WORK-TO-RULE protest by lawyers flopped when their court ran quicker without them. Briefs refused to take custody cases at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in a bid to cause chaos on one of the busiest days of the year. They are fighting to keep their £60-an-hour fees paid by the public in Legal Aid cases. But two solicitors obliged to work whisked through more than 40 cases in two hours less than normal. One lawyer who defied the protest during the local bank holiday weekend accused his colleagues of greed. Neil McPherson said: "When I look at my colleagues and their top-of-the-range cars, the houses they live in, the holidays and meals they talk about and all the rest of it, then they refuse to do their professional duty, the only common denominator is greed.

Sunday Mail

19 May

Brown tackles 'rumour and gossip'

Gordon Brown today insisted he was the right person to guide Britain through difficult economic times, as he continued his effort to reassert his authority in the wake of the worst weeks of his premiership...Mr Brown insisted he would continue to take difficult decisions which are in the long-term interests of the country, such as supporting nuclear energy, requiring incapacity benefit claimants to undergo medical tests to see if they can work and building 3 million new homes. (Worthy work for the incapacitated. UJ)

Independent

18 May

Struck off after spending thousands on strippers

A LAWYER from Highgate has been kicked out of the profession after he blew more than £200,000 of his firm's cash on strippers. Divorced father of three Paul Saffron, 43, from Stanhope Road, raided the accounts of top law firm Radcliffes Le Brasseur over more than three years. He spent most of the cash on lap dancers in clubs across London. Colleagues at the 150-year-old law firm called in the police when they discovered a £104,000 hole in the accounts. Saffron insisted he was clinically depressed and had only spent the money quickly so he would have no alternative but to kill himself out of shame when he was discovered. But last Thursday, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal ignored his pleas to be allowed to stay in the profession.

Hampstead & Highgate Expr

15 May

Former mayor aided international fraudsters

A GANG of fraudsters including a former mayor of Selby and the father of a York councillor has been convicted of a multi-million pound international con. The complex scam which stretched from the United Kingdom to Spain, Gibraltar and Tenerife was uncovered by officers from North Yorkshire Police in one of the biggest investigations the force has undertaken in the past decade. Paul Blanchard, whose son, also called Paul, is a councillor on York Council, masterminded the fraud which involved an audacious attempt to steal £4.3m from a London-based bank before transferring the cash to a Spanish account. Blanchard senior, 63, of St Oswald's Court, Fulford, York, who has convictions for fraud dating back 30 years, also oversaw a £375,000 money-laundering operation and an attempt to obtain a British passport under a false name for a Moldovan woman.

Yorkshire Post

15 May

Fraud: stop the rot

Preventing fraud is just as important as dealing with the aftermath
Written by Richard Alderman

There’s a popular misconception that fraud is a victimless crime. At the Serious Fraud Office the victims of fraud are at the heart of what we do. In the public consciousness we are primarily associated with prosecuting high-level multi-million pound cases, often involving the capital markets. True, these are an important part of our role. But crimes such as boiler-room frauds and advance fee frauds that directly impact ordinary people are equally prominent on our radar. I see the impact of these frauds every working day through the hardship and anguish that fraud causes. In one SFO case an elderly couple committed suicide after they lost their pensions as a result of an alleged fraud. Many people like them spend years building financial security only to have a fraudster take it away. This incenses me on both a personal and professional level, and strengthens my determination to ensure these victims get the justice and compensation they deserve. (Not against the lawyers, you won't. UJ)

Accountancy Age

15 May

Househunters offered 'asbo danger ratings' through new website

Britain's first ever "asbo packs" are now available for prospective homebuyers who can get a danger rating for the property they are looking at. Information on anti-social behaviour hotspots in Britain is being compiled and put on the website Asbodata which states it is "Britain's only supplier" of reports detailing incidents of anti-social behaviour at street level. Househunters can buy urban or rural reports revealing the frequency and categories of anti-social behaviour occurring on a particular street or in a village over a six month period. The project was put together by solicitors based in Plymouth, Devon and director Ken Papenfus said there are hardly any areas where anti-social behaviour is not reported. (UnjustIS might compile a "Lawyer Pack" for prospective house buyers. Any takers?)

24 Dash

14 May

Will the public ever think well of solicitors?

It’s a tough brief — promoting the brand of solicitor — and one almost on a par with promoting estate agents or politicians (not to mention journalists). Undaunted, the Law Society has launched a £400,000 campaign of posters and advertisements to appear on billboards, on such sites as Waterloo Station and Cannon Street, and taxis in all the big cities throughout England and Wales to highlight the services that solicitors can offer. The Your Solicitor, Qualified to Answer adverts are not meant to be funny or clever — just straight — and in a new green and white branding. The campaign has been devised by the DML marketing group with DKA the media planners, under the auspices of Stephen Ward, communications director at the Law Society. (Hold the Front Page. UJ)

Times Online

11 May

Complaints against solicitors rise by a third

The number of complaints made against solicitors rose by nearly a third more than expected in April, the Gazette can reveal. Instead of the 1,077 complaints the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) forecast it would receive, it logged 1,410 complaints about service levels from consumers. Of the additional 333 complaints lodged, 163 concerned coal miners’ health compensation, which might be explained by additional publicity generated by the LCS itself in lodging complaints about deductions taken by some solicitors and trade unions, from miners’ awards. However, the remaining 170 additional complaints were spread across different fields of law including personal injury, probate, matrimonial, immigration, employment and commercial conveyancing. General enquiries about how to complain were also up by 8% on forecast levels.

Law Society Gazette

11 May

Drugs offender keeps £4.5m after 30 barristers refuse to take case

A convicted drugs offender has escaped a confiscation order for up to £4.5 million of his assets because legal aid barristers would not take on the case for the fixed fee of £175.25 a day. In a dramatic illustration of the impact of new legal aid fees, the man had to act for himself and won an appeal for the confiscation order to be set aside because he was not represented by a lawyer. Eighteen sets of chambers had been approached in London, Leeds and Sheffield – involving a total of 30 barristers – to see if they would defend the man identified only as P in the confiscation hearing. Jansen Versfeld, the solicitor who conducted the fruitless search for a barrister, said: “Because of the very low rate of pay for these hearings, £175.25 per day, and the amount of work and complexity involved, with no payment for preparation, none could undertake to do it.” (Did they try Ebay, I wonder? UJ

Times Online

06 May

Law Society slams plan to publish complaints of law firms

By Jayne Willets

Recent proposals by the Legal Complaints Service to publish the complaints records for solicitors firms have been attacked by the Law Society as being ineffective, unfair to solicitors and misleading for clients. The Law Society, now acting in its representative role as trade union for solicitors, has condemned the argument that publication of complaints will improve public confidence in the profession. It claims that the proposals undermine the positive work done by solicitors in improving service and resolving complaints more effectively and advocates devoting more resources to training.

Birmingham Post

02 May

Burnley fraud lawyer ‘has lost everything’

A SOLICITOR who forged another lawyer's signature on a legal document has been thrown out of the profession. Philip Lowe, 42, formerly of Low Bank, Burnley, signed papers so the estate of a client could be handled quickly, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard. When inspectors raided his firm they found he had been using client's money for his own benefit by keeping the cash in his own bank account. Lowe, who, the hearing was told, now sold paint for a living, tried to stage a cover up by wrongly billing clients to balance his books. He has now lost his family, his firm and his home because of his dishonesty, the hearing was told. Lowe who ran his own firm in Main Street, Cross Hills, Keig-hley, was cleared of fraud at a Bradford Crown Court trial but admitted using a false ins-trument and was fined £515. Ian Ryan, for the Law Society, told the hearing investigators found a £35,332 black hole' in Lowe''s books when they raided the firm on July 4 2005. Money which should have been paid into the client account had been deposited in the firm's account which were controlled solely by Lowe.

Burnley Citizen

01 May

The 'billion pound' share swindle

An insider has told BBC2's Working Lunch of 500 Spanish boiler rooms targeting UK investors, as police brand it the biggest fraud threat to households. An experienced boiler room dealer has warned that the UK has wildly underestimated the danger from foreign-based scamsters touting dud shares. The dealer, who has asked to remain anonymous, has been working in Spanish boiler rooms for several years. He told BBC2's Working Lunch that, "it's a billion pound industry, every year." "The average shop, if you're a decent shop, you're writing a million a week," he said. "If you're good at it, the money is endless."

BBC

01 May

Britain's overseas territories open to fraud and money laundering

Britain's 14 last remaining overseas territories are at risk of becoming centres for money laundering because of a dearth of qualified investigators to police their financial systems, the Commons public accounts committee warns today. The MPs single out the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat and Anguilla - all in the Caribbean - as most at risk from dubious financial practices because of poor quality regulatory standards. The MPs warn: "Territories' financial services lack the investigative capacity to scrutinise suspected money laundering activity fully and governors have not used their reserve powers to rectify this. In such a sensitive aspect of the global financial system it is complacent to allow territories for which the UK is responsible entirely to manage the risk themselves."

Guardian

01 May

'Mr Generosity' jailed for £½m MoD fraud

A company manager nicknamed Mr Generosity because he gave people free cars, accommodation and weekend breaks and held lavish parties was jailed for 3½ years yesterday for defrauding the Ministry of Defence of almost half a million pounds. James McLaughlan, 58, regularly handed over "silence money" and used the cars and mini-breaks to "corrupt and manipulate" others into helping him steal the money from the UK's defence budget.

Guardian

01 May