Public money plundered

FRAUD: government solicitor jailed for conveyancing scams

A government solicitor went undetected for nine years while committing a 542,000 fraud on the public purse, the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed this week.Anthony Lilleystone was with the Government Property Lawyers Agency, the body that provided conveyancing services to the government before its unrelated disbandment in 1998.The NAO report found that the fraud began in July 1989 when a client erroneously sent to the agency duplicate cheques for 70,000 on behalf of a vendor.

Mr Lilleystone deposited one of the cheques in a building society account - under his control - in the name of the client.

He then stole the funds.Over the course of the next nine years, he banked cheques made out by clients in the name of vendors' law firms, stole the interest, and fraudulently used his authorisation to make payments without countersignature.The fraud was discovered in May 1998 when one of the agency's clients tried to recover a cheque it had also mistakenly sent in duplicate.

By then, Mr Lilleystone had diverted 1.2 million into accounts he controlled.He appropriated a total of 347,000 and estimated interest of 195,000.

The Treasury Solicitors Department has taken out a court injunction for 250,000 on Mr Lilleystone's assets.

A court judgment for damages has been obtained.

An investigation of Mr Lilleystone's assets has identified a further 137,000 that he might have stolen.In January 1999, Mr Lilleystone was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal struck him off last October.

Jeremy Fleming