Lawyer In The News

Who? Ian Guyster, 54-year old sole practitioner based in north London, specialising in litigation.Why is he in the news? Acts for three members of a lottery syndicate who maintain that the fourth member has won 8 million but not told them.

The four men, all market traders from south-east London, entered the lottery every week.

Three of them became suspicious when the fourth stopped working at his market stall, moved into a large new house and bought new cars for himself and his partner.

The three are now going to court to force him to say whether he won the lottery, and if he did, whether it was with one of the syndicate's tickets.Background: LLB at London University 1967-70, followed by Law Society finals at the College of Law at Lancaster Gate.

He qualified in 1972 with London firm Silkin Silkin & Pierce, and immediately afterwards joined Barlow Lyde & Gilbert.

He joined Kingsley Napley in 1975 and set up his own firm in 1976.Route to the case: 'I represented Mr and Mrs Tott, the couple who had the winning lottery ticket, but whom Camelot refused to pay [because the ticket was presented too late].

Because of the publicity surrounding that case, I was contacted about this.'Thoughts on the case: 'When my clients asked him where he got all this money from, he said firstly that his father had given him some money from properties that he had sold.

He then claimed that his father had won the lottery, but as his father still lives in a council flat in Elephant and Castle, we found that story unlikely.

We are hoping to prove in court, on the balance of probabilities, that he did win with one of the syndicate's tickets, and to disprove that, he will have to admit where the money came from.

Nothing was set down in writing between the syndicate members, as it never tends to be with lottery syndicates, and it's very surprising that a case like this has never come up before.'Dealing with the media: 'There was a great deal of publicity surrounding the Totts' case, and because of that I became used to dealing with the media.

It istime-consuming and it's something that I would rather do without, but there are instances where it canbe a benefit to the case and help with what you're trying to achieve.

So it is worth giving the time over and doing it.'Victoria MacCallum