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Solicitors and other lawyers making the bad news from 2003 to date: News Roundup
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Soliciting sound legal advice Despite rigorous training solicitors can still make mistakes. Make sure you know the correct procedures to take on the law. Solicitors undergo five years of rigorous training to qualify in their chosen profession, but this doesn't always help them provide good service and value for money to clients. Last year, the Law Society received a staggering 17,074 complaints about solicitors, equivalent to one for every six solicitors practising in England and Wales. This represents a 14% increase from 2002. Research conducted by Which? magazine shows a third of people think they receive poor service from their solicitor. A quarter of those surveyed think their solicitor doesn't listen to their opinion, and a third don't feel they are told enough about how much they will be charged. |
22 Nov |
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In the old days Halloween was a rather forgettable entrée to Bonfire Night involving a few bored-looking kids hanging around street corners in the darkness while holding hollowed-out swedes – no pumpkins then – or engaging in the odd, desultory bout of apple bobbing...As befits its American origins, the new "trick or treat" Halloween is an industrial-scale enterprise costing Britain about £120 million this year and involving yet more stress for weary parents already eyeing the looming annual economic meltdown still known by some as Christmas. |
31 Oct |
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Lawyer Mills in corruption trial The British tax lawyer David Mills is to stand trial charged with corruption alongside ex-Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, a Milan judge has ruled. The judge said enough evidence existed for a trial to go ahead over a £325,000 payment to Mr Mills, allegedly paid in exchange for favourable court evidence. |
31 Oct |
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Top judges consider changes after BCCI IN AN unprecedented move, the country’s most senior judges and lawyers yesterday gathered to discuss a shake-up in the conduct of commercial cases in the aftermath of the 13-year BCCI litigation against the Bank of England. According to a senior litigation lawyer who attended the discussion, a working party will now consider possible changes to rules governing management of cases. |
31 Oct |
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Expert witnesses shun the courts for fear of lawyers THE system for providing medical experts for family law cases should be overhauled radically because doctors are reluctant to participate in trials, the Chief Medical Officer for England has said. |
31 Oct |
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MPs hit out at Watson Burton over miner claims Eighty-one MPs have signed an early-day motion condemning Watson Burton's handling of the controversial miners' compensation scheme and have called for the firm to refund compensation money to the miners. The motion slates the firm for "colluding" with claims firm PR & Associates (PRA) and for deducting the money, which was directed to PRA from the coal mining disease victims' compensation scheme. |
30 Oct |
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Solicitors Assistance Scheme under threat The Solicitors Assistance Scheme is preparing to fight for its survival after 34 years of advising solicitors, legal staff and their relatives on problems as diverse as disciplinary actions and alcohol addiction. The scheme's committee is concerned that the split between regulation and representation at the Law Society, which currently administers the scheme, could affect its ability to help solicitors in need. |
30 Oct |
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Cash adviser jailed for £2m fraud A financial adviser who conned clients out of £2.3m to feed an online gambling habit has been jailed for nine years. Philip Smith, 49, formerly of Gaddum Road in Bowdon, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to offences including theft, forgery and money laundering. The court heard how Smith targeted the elderly and vulnerable, and used people's credit cards for betting. Judge Peter Lakin, sentencing, said he was a "callous, manipulative and thoroughly dishonest man". Smith conned at least 50 victims - many of them elderly - and gambled away at least £2m on the internet. One woman in her 80s lost more than £200,000 |
30 Oct |
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Carousel fraud four jailed Four men have been jailed for a total of 57 years for running an elaborate VAT fraud that cheated taxpayers out of £10 million. The scam, which centred on the trading activities of a Scottish company called Virgini Ltd, involved making false VAT claims for mobile phones that were supposedly being imported into the UK and exported to Ukraine. In fact, there was no evidence the phones ever existed. Director Durgesh Mehta, 51, was jailed for a total of 33 years after being convicted of cheating the public revenue, money laundering, and conspiracy to transfer criminal property under the Proceeds of Crime Act. His sentences will run concurrently. The wealthy solicitor lived in the stockbroker belt village of Chalfont St Peter, in Buckinghamshire, and commuted weekly to Scotland. His three accomplices - Gerald Reardon, 55, from Kent, Matthew Sharman, 43 from Essex, and Peter Ratcliff, 54, from Surrey - each received eight year prison sentences for laundering the proceeds through offshore companies. |
28 Oct |
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Government "failing on fraud". The government is paying lip service to fraud without spending the money needed to tackle the problem, the leading fraud watchdog has said. The Fraud Advisory Panel, publishing its Which Way Now? (PDF) Evaluating the Government's Fraud Review assessment, says that the government's interim report shows that a 'failure of the state' has occurred regarding the fight against fraud because it wants the private sector to 'pick up the bill'. |
27 Oct |
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Appeal to locate missing solicitor A MANHUNT was launched this week for a missing solicitor who has been accused of mishandling £430,000 of clients' cash. Folashide Mojisola Olowu, 37, worked for a firm in central Croydon but went missing after inspectors found the company's books in complete "disarray". This week, a solicitors' disciplinary tribunal requested a national advertising campaign in a bid to track her down using appeals in the press. Olowu broke a series of accounting rules while working for law firm O S Johnson, in Church Street, the tribunal heard. Her colleague Gbenga Ogunrinde, 37, was suspended from practising law for two years in June this year for his part in the debacle. |
27 Oct |
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Charles David Calveley The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) ordered that the respondent, of 20 Addison Court, Heath Road, Twickenham TW1 4AG, should pay a fine of £2,500 for unbefitting conduct, in that he had acted as a solicitor while not in possession of a valid practising certificate, contrary to rule 1 of the Solicitors Practice Rules 1990 and/or principle 2.03 of the Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors (1999, 8th edition), and he had failed to deal promptly and substantively with correspondence from the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (as was). The SDT accepted that the respondent had described himself as a solicitor as a result of an oversight rather than any deliberate intention to deceive. A person might not describe himself as a solicitor and hold himself out as authorised to undertake work on behalf of clients unless he holds a current practising certificate. That was an important part of the regulatory regime that was in place to protect members of the public and should not be taken lightly. (Joke. UJ) |
27 Oct |
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Lawyers take the lot as family keeps £½m legacy feud going for 43 years FOR the past 43 years the Weston family of Stoke-on-Trent have been in and out of court arguing over a legacy. They should have known better. What must be one of Britain’s longest running legal battles ended in the Court of Appeal yesterday with a judgment that means, in effect, that most of the £480,000 the clan were fighting over will disappear into the pockets of lawyers. |
25 Oct |
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Solicitors strike over legal aid forms A group of solicitors went on strike today in protest at new legal aid forms that they claim are too complicated and are damaging people’s access to justice. The 25 solicitors at Plymouth Magistrates Court claim the forms are now up to five times longer than before and difficult for clients, who may be illiterate, to understand. |
25 Oct |
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Con man Peter Foster in hospital Convicted fraudster Peter Foster has been taken to hospital in Fiji after injuring himself while being chased by police, according to reports. The Australian, who caused outrage after the Cherie-gate scandal, injured himself while trying to evade police at a holiday resort. Video footage showed Foster being carried on a stretcher, wearing a pair of bathing briefs, his head wrapped in bandages |
25 Oct |
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English fraud law will close loopholes, says expert Proposed changes to English fraud legislation will result in more convictions, according to a litigation specialist who says that the laws need to be updated to take account of advancing technology. The Government has drafted a Fraud Bill which is before Parliament and could be passed this autumn. It eliminates a number of different fraud crimes and creates a new single offence of fraud. According to Sean Elson, a senior associate at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW, the changes will make convictions more likely. |
25 Oct |
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Differential responses in the
fusiform region to same-race and other-race faces
Many studies have shown that people remember faces of their own race better than faces of other races. We investigated the neural substrates of same-race memory superiority using functional MRI (fMRI). European-American (EA) and African-American (AA) males underwent fMRI while they viewed photographs of AA males, EA males and objects under intentional encoding conditions. Recognition memory was superior for same-race versus other-race faces. Individually defined areas in the fusiform region that responded preferentially to faces had greater response to same-race versus other-race faces. Across both groups, memory differences between same-race and other-race faces correlated with activation in left fusiform cortex and right parahippocampal and hippocampal areas. These results suggest that differential activation in fusiform regions contributes to same-race memory superiority. |
Article in full: |
24 Oct |
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'Chinese look same' claim backed A sheriff who claimed that all Chinese people look the same at first glance has received community groups' support. Sheriff Margaret Gimblett cleared student Hui Yu, 23, from Beijing, of a motoring offence on Friday. During the case, she reportedly told Greenock Sheriff Court that at first glance all Chinese people can look the same to a native Scot. Community groups said the remark was neither derogatory nor offensive and many Chinese feel the same about Scots. Sheriff Gimblett dismissed evidence from two police officers who identified Mr Yu. She reportedly said a person would only begin to see the differences in a Chinese person after looking at them for quite some time. |
24 Oct |
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Solicitor raided couple's account of £100,000 A Golders Green solicitor has been 'struck off' after stealing more than £100,000 from clients. Winston Jesiah Held, 64, of Sinclair Grove, cleared the account of an unnamed couple he was advising about selling their house, an industrial tribunal heard. Held worked as a consultant at Jay Benning and Peltz and Talbot Creggy in Marylebone. |
24 Oct |
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Enron boss gets 24-year sentence Former Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling has been sentenced to 24 years for his role in the giant fraud that led to the energy firm's 2001 collapse. In May he had been found guilty on 19 counts including fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, and was told he could expect 20 to 30 years in prison. The former chief executive of the US energy giant was convicted together with Enron's ex-chairman Kenneth Lay. Mr Lay has since died and his convictions have been quashed. This is because Mr Lay, who died of a heart attack in July, passed away before he was able to appeal against the verdict. |
24 Oct |
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Freedom of Information: 'A significant success' The
Government today set out its commitment to build on the success of the
Freedom of Information (FoI) Act's first year and indicated how it might
address the costs of dealing with FoI requests. |
24 Oct |
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Change 'will weaken' openness law Politically-embarrassing requests could be buried more easily if proposed changes to the Freedom of Information are put through, say campaigners. The £600 limit on processing requests may be extended to include officials' time, the Lord Chancellor suggested. The Campaign for Freedom of Information said it would make it easier for authorities to refuse potentially embarrassing requests on cost grounds. The government has said the changes could save £5m of taxpayers' money. |
24 Oct |
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Aristocrat ruins law career with hapless fraud A law student from one of the oldest aritocratic (sic) families in Britain escaped jail after committing "the worst attempt at forgery" ever seen by a court. Andrew Curzon, a former Eton pupil and sixth in line to become the Honourable Viscount of Scarsdale, was given a nine-month suspended sentence last Friday after he tried to bank a cheque made out to a 75-year-old pensioner. |
21 Oct |
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Cleaner who blackmailed immigration judges is jailed A Brazilian cleaner at the centre of a lurid blackmail case involving two immigration judges was jailed yesterday for 33 months. The recorder of London, Peter Beaumont, told Roselane Driza she was a "greedy and determined woman". Driza, who worked as a cleaner for a female immigration judge and her former lover Mohammed Ilias Khan, a crown court recorder and immigration judge, was convicted of blackmail and theft earlier this month. She had attempted to secure £20,000 from the female judge, who cannot be named, by threatening to go to the newspapers and reveal that she had hired her as a cleaner while she was an illegal immigrant. |
21 Oct |
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Prison drugs mule woman is jailed A drugs mule who posed as a solicitor to smuggle drugs into prisons has been jailed for six-and-a-half years. Lisa Jennings, 35, of Woodhouse Square, Ipswich, Suffolk, used headed notepaper from law firms to gain access to at least four prisons, including Norwich. |
20 Oct |
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Rule-break solicitor is struck off A solicitor who abandoned his failing law firm to start a new life as a property salesman on the Costa Blanca has been struck off. Barry Young, 42, fled to Spain last year when his Preston practice got into financial difficulty, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard. The lawyer left unqualified staff to fend for themselves, then tried to mislead a Law Society investigator by claiming another solicitor was running Young & Co in his absence. |
20 Oct |
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MINISTER ATTACKS SOLICITORS OVER MINING CFAs A new row over solicitors’ handling of mining claims blew up last week after a government minister accused firms of agreeing illegal retainers with clients and charging ‘excessive’ success fees and insurance premiums. A House of Commons debate on hearing loss cases – for which, unlike other categories of miners’ personal injury claims, no formal government compensation scheme exists – was told that, over the past five years, solicitors’ costs have risen from an average of £700 per case to £1,200, while the average damages pay-out has remained static at around £2,000. |
20 Oct |
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Dishonest lawyer struck off A crooked lawyer from Preston built up a property portfolio by taking more than £239,000 from clients, including First World War veterans, a tribunal heard. Ian Desmond, the 53-year-old former chief executive of the Lancashire law firm Marsdens, misappropriated the money to buy houses. The Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal struck off Desmond, of Mallowdale, Fulwood, after hearing details of "the most appalling dishonesty". |
19 Oct |
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Law Society proposals for small claims limit The Law
Society has put forward suggestions to speed up the personal injury small
claims process |
19 Oct |
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Microsoft releases long-awaited Web browser upgrade SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. released Internet Explorer 7 on Wednesday, the first major upgrade to its Web browser since 2001 with new features aimed at preventing online fraud and improving ease of use. Microsoft's IE remains the most widely-used software to surf the Web, but the long gap between major releases allowed for the emergence of the company's most formidable browser competitor since it vanquished the once-dominant Netscape. |
Review at: |
19 Oct |
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Can an American judge take a British company offline? Had a court in Illinois done what the winner of a case there desired, billions of spam emails could have begun landing in the inboxes of 650 million people all over the world - including the European Parliament, US Army, the White House and Microsoft - every day this month. The reason: Judge Charles Kocoras, of the district court of the northern district of Illinois, was asked to rule that a British company called Spamhaus, which runs a commercial spam-blocking service for 700 million users, should have its website taken away for failing to comply with an earlier court order - which was to stop blocking emails from e360Insight, a Chicago-based bulk emailing company. |
19 Oct |
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Judge: Libel Limit Applies to
Web |
19 Oct |
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Case errors 'wasting £55m
yearly' |
19 Oct |
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Solicitor jailed after BBC reporter's sting A Havant solicitor targeted by a "TV sting" has been jailed for three years. David Lancaster, 56, from Harbourside, was convicted of inventing stories to get a man off a drugs supply offence - unaware that he was an investigative reporter telling him a cover tale. Lancaster was told by Judge Graham Cottle at Exeter Crown Court: "You broke every rule in the book in a breatttaking display of unprofessional conduct."..."The judge told Lancaster the British criminal justice system is held up as a model of fairness and good practice, and in order to maintain that reputation it is of paramount importance that professionals involved in the system behave at all times with honesty and integrity." |
See also: And: |
18 Oct |
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BBC journalist "incited to pervert police investigation" The jury in the case of a solicitor accused of inventing stories to get a man off a drug supplying offence - unaware he was an undercover investigative reporter - retired today to consider its verdict. David Lancaster, 55, from Harbourside, Havant, Hampshire, has pleaded not guilty at Exeter Crown Court to attempting to incite another to pervert the course of a police investigation. |
18 Oct |
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Downfall of ex-mayor who cheated on friends A FORMER mayor's gambling addiction led him to pose as a solicitor to cheat money out of three vulnerable friends, a court heard. But Norman Carter, a former first citizen at Medway, walked free from Maidstone Crown Court with a suspended sentence - and an order not to gamble for a year. The court was told the 51-year-old's fall from grace after a distinguished career. Kerry Musgrave, prosecuting, said the matter, spanning six months last year, showed a gross breach of trust and involved persuasion and careful planning. Carter's victims included Hazel and Roy St Mary Green, who had known him for a number of years. The couple had become unwell and Carter said he was a solicitor and could help them with legal difficulties. |
17 Oct |
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Lawyers win a rethink on reforms to legal aid THE Lord Chancellor was forced into retreat yesterday over plans to overhaul the £2 billion-a-year legal aid scheme in the face of mounting opposition from solicitors. Lord Falconer of Thoroton announced that he was in effect scrapping controversial plans for fixed fees instead of hourly rates in family and civil legal aid cases pending a complete rethink. He also pledged to reconsider the timetable for the scheme, which had been due to start in April. It is likely that the proposed market-based reforms will not now come in before 2008. |
14 Oct |
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LawSoc president Woolf savages Government over controversial reforms Law Society president Fiona Woolf has hit out at the Government over its controversial plans to overhaul the legal profession, branding the raft of proposed reforms in the Legal Services Bill “indefensible”. Speaking at Chancery Lane’s annual conference today (13 October), Woolf said: “The prospect of the Legal Services Bill, as currently drafted, keeps me awake at night. The Lord Chancellor [Lord Falconer] promised a light-touch supervisor, not the duplicating, micro-managing regulator that has been drafted into the Bill.” |
14 Oct |
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'UNETHICAL ASYLUM SOLICITORS FAIL CLIENTS Immigration solicitors acting under the fast-track system for asylum cases are engaging in ‘unethical practices’ and ‘complicit exploitation of an unfair system’, a damning report by an award-winning charity has warned. The report by Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID), past winner of the Liberty/Justice human rights group of the year award, claims some solicitors are failing in their duties to clients. It says lawyers are leaving appellants to go unrepresented even though they are entitled to legal representation. It also suggests that solicitors may be requesting payment on a private basis despite the client’s eligibility for legal aid. |
13 Oct |
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The Price of Blood On the eve of his appearance in an Italian court on tax, money laundering and potentially corruption charges, Panorama examines the career of David Mills, estranged husband of Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell. The film asks why such a talented and clever operator, fluent in Italian and a master of offshore financial know-how, has allowed his reputation - and by association his wife's - to be damaged by his choice of clients. (Read synopsis, watch programme online, read full transcript) |
13 Oct |
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Lawyers welcome landmark libel ruling By Michael Herman Media lawyers in London today welcomed the law lords' rejection of Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe, saying it would strengthen "serious", investigative journalism carried out in the public interest. Mark Stephens, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent and a Times Online columnist, who represented the Wall Street Journal Europe, said: "For too long the libel courts have treated Reynolds' ten factors as ten trip wires for the media, rendering the defence a snare and an illusion. "The law lords today have balanced the right to know by allowing responsibly published libellous information to be protected provided it is reported in a matter of public interest. This is a decision which will free responsible investigative journalists from threats of libel." |
11 Oct |
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Magistrates' court facing meltdown CRAWLEY Magistrates' Court is on the verge of meltdown after solicitors refused to represent clients because of new rules governing legal aid. New regulations have caused huge delays in cases coming before JPs with many being adjourned to another date. The situation has now become so bad some defendants have resorted to defending themselves in court rather than face the delay in getting legal aid. |
11 Oct |
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Barrister sues her father in battle over £2.5m trust A Cambridge law graduate started a legal battle against her father yesterday over the family's £2.5 million estate, claiming that he wanted to use the money entitled to her to pay for a comfortable retirement. Jane Walker, 28, a barrister, told the High Court that her father, Bill, was the "most controlling person" she had ever met and had not properly administered a family trust that had been set up by her grandfather. The battle involves the family's assets of two farms – the 256-acre Holme House farm and the 138-acre Cotterhill Woods – near Worksop, Notts, which have a freehold value of £2,549,000. (Keep it all in the family, eh? UJ) |
11 Oct |
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Solicitor’s son ripped off clients A MAN who acted
dishonestly while running his father’s law firm has been jailed for 18
months – after he fiddled more than £100,000 from clients. Bruce Carden, 38,
of Smithy Lane, Mottram St Andrew, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft
and two of false accounting at Chester Crown Court. Recorder of Chester,
Judge Elgan Edwards, told the defendant: "The solicitor’s profession is an
honourable one, |
11 Oct |
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Legal aid in crisis as clients are abandoned Urgent cases are being turned away from centres that are struggling to cope, writes Jon Robins. A 62-year-old man from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, on income support and facing eviction from his home of 50 years, was forced repeatedly to travel by public transport to west London to find a lawyer to advise him on legal aid. |
09 Oct |
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Miners' solicitor who boasted £13m success now keeps his own counsel ANDREW NULTY decided this year that not enough people were aware of his glittering achievements. In only five years he had set up a law firm in a provincial backwater and turned it into such a money-spinning triumph that at the age of 39 he had a multimillion-pound fortune. |
07 Oct |
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'Ambulance chasers' cast profession in bad light THE handling of the public’s complaints against solicitors has been a story of incompetence and failure that has prompted a radically different regulatory framework for the legal profession. The Law Society’s record over two decades had brought it constant criticism and widespread dissatisfaction from aggrieved clients, who saw its efforts as more protectionist than in the interest of consumers. |
07 Oct |
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Solicitor Is Struck Off A respected Jewish solicitor who dishonestly helped himself to £102,000 belonging to trusting clients was struck off last week. Winston Jesaiah Held, 64, emptied an unsuspecting couple's account after they sold a house, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard last Thursday. |
06 Oct |
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Court papers gagged by Law Society High Court injunction
prevents public and media from gaining access to documentation of any case. |
03 Oct |
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Law Society gagging order stops journalists' access to court documents The Law Society has won an unprecedented gagging order stopping all courts in the UK from releasing information under a new rule. High Court judge Mr Justice Irwin granted the Law Society, the professional body of solicitors, an injunction against court officer Michael Parker and HM Courts Service at 4pm on Friday afternoon. The injunction bans court offices in the UK releasing information under a new rule which should have taken effect from 2 October, allowing people to inspect court documents in civil cases. This is thought to be the first time that courts throughout the UK have been gagged. Although it is common for legal challenges, it is unheard of for the Law Society to sue the courts. |
02 Oct |
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Divisions grow in legal profession over Clementi Scotland's apparent reluctance to free up legal services has split the nation's 10,000 lawyers. These divisions now threaten to metamorphose into gaping fissures, after the Westminster government reiterated there will be no u-turn on the path to far-reaching reform in England and Wales. Some Scottish law firms have already threatened to relocate their "brass plaques" to England so they can appoint non-lawyer partners and raise external capital. Meanwhile, senior solicitors are contemplating a pro-reform lobbying campaign targeted at Holyrood and bypassing the Law Society of Scotland, which has serious reservations about "taking the low road". |
02 Oct |
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Life and death of the Oligarchs' lawyer British lawyer Stephen Curtis played a crucial role in managing the fortunes of some of the world's richest men - the so-called Russian oligarchs. Radio 4's Jenny Chryss examines his life, and explores why his untimely death has given rise to conspiracy theories. When a helicopter crashed near Bournemouth airport in March 2004, it was seen as a tragic accident. The pilot of the twin-engine Augusta 109 died instantly, along with his only passenger, when it came down in fields about a mile from its destination. |
02 Oct |
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Rules stop legal aid for wealthy New rules designed to stop high earners claiming legal aid in England and Wales are expected to save £35m a year, says the government. The rules, now in force, mean those facing criminal charges in magistrates' courts only qualify for financial help if they cannot afford a lawyer. But critics say the new system causes much confusion and will delay cases. |
02 Oct |
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New law for lawyers: get older, get fired, then sue for millions From today, if a law firm wants to retire one of its partners, it must prove a lack of performance or face a claim for unlimited damages. City law firms could be forced to pay out millions of pounds to partners who they want to retire, because of the new age discrimination laws that come into effect today. |
01 Oct |
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Credit data stolen at Indian call centres CREDIT card data, along with passport and driving licence numbers, are being stolen from call centres in India and sold to the highest bidder, an investigation has found. Middlemen are offering bulk packages of tens of thousands of credit card numbers for sale. They even have access to taped telephone conversations in which British customers disclose sensitive security information to call centre staff. The trading of stolen data will raise new concerns about the security of information in overseas call centres. Last June, an HSBC employee in Bangalore was arrested after £230,000 was stolen from British customers’ accounts. |
01 Oct |
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Legal aid ‘deserts’ condemn women to live with abuse ABUSED women are being forced to remain in the same households as their assailants because they cannot access lawyers to take on their cases, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Despite government promises to stem the rising tide of domestic violence, solicitors say “derisory” rates of pay for civil legal aid cases mean many are no longer prepared to take on such work. The situation is leading to a crisis across Scotland, but especially in the Highlands and rural areas, where there are fewer legal firms and distance can pose a problem. |
01 Oct |
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Solicitor jailed for helping gunman A solicitor was jailed for a year at the Old Bailey today for smuggling a letter out of Belmarsh jail to help a gunman accused of shooting a trial witness. Maya Devani, a former member of law firm Arani & Co, which defended the radical cleric Abu Hamza, was convicted earlier this year of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Her client, Timothy Merchant, was found guilty of two charges of attempted murder and perverting the course of justice and was jailed today for 18 years. Devani was told by Judge Paul Focke: "The authorities need to be able to trust and rely on the integrity of solicitors. You let them down." |
30 Sep |
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Solicitor saga highlights problems facing cash recovery unit Unrealistic financial targets for agency accused of sweeping aside civil liberties One of the government's newest anti-crime bodies has spent the past year trying to confiscate millions of pounds from a couple in Weybridge, Surrey. Neither is charged with any criminal offence, and neither has yet handed over the money. |
29 Sep |
The
trick is to get us to part with £120m