Solicitor jailed for stealing client money in will fraud

A 45-year-old solicitor from Oadby, Leicestershire, was jailed for four years last week after being convicted of stealing client money.

Martyn Neal was convicted of five charges of theft between June 1996 and March 2000, and asked for another seven charges to be taken into account.Mr Neal, committed the theft while working as a partner in Loughborough firm Edward Hands & Lewis.

He became the illegal beneficiary of clients' wills and set up a dummy account in the name of a deceased client.

In all, Mr Neal stole 430,000, of which he has repaid 130,000.Partners at Edward Hands reported Mr Neal to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors and the police when they noticed irregularities.Disciplinary proceedings are currently being brought by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.The court heard in mitigation that Mr Neal intended to repay the rest of the money and that he had suffered 'a large degree of personal loss'.He told that court that - in addition to the loss of his job and the prospect of working again as a solicitor, he had also lost his wife and self-respect.

Jeremy Fleming