Fraud investigators have hailed the sale of a seven-figure property bought from the proceeds of a solicitor’s fraud. The Serious Fraud Office said it had secured £1.1m from the sale of a Lake District house in its first use of an unexplained wealth order.
The five-bedroom property called Hope Springs House belonged to Claire Schools, the ex-wife of convicted fraudster and former solicitor Timothy Schools.
The SFO said the lakeside house and accompanying two-bedroom lodge were purchased using money from Timothy Schools’ multi-million-pound investment scheme involving no win, no fee law firms. The order was granted at the High Court in January and the property was sold three months later.
Timothy Schools was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to 14 years in prison after defrauding investors through a scheme selling investment in claims. It is estimated he received more than £19m in benefits, and after his conviction he conceded he had transferred almost £1.1m in proceeds of crime to others, mainly family members. Schools was struck off the roll in 2014.
The Cayman Islands-registered Axiom Legal Financing Fund, purportedly set up to lend money to firms, collapsed in 2012, affecting an estimated 35,000 clients whose cases were reliant on the money.
SFO director Nick Ephgrave said: ‘We will use all the tools at our disposal to recover proceeds of crime from those associates and family members who seek to benefit from the criminal activity of others. Unexplained wealth orders offer investigative opportunities to pursue assets on behalf of victims and taxpayers. This is our first successful use of this legislation and it certainly won’t be the last.’
A further hearing to look into Timothy Schools’ assets is scheduled for later this month.
