Crooked lawyer stole £90,000 from Midland pensioners to fund boob job and chihuahua

Nov 29 2009 by Jeanette Oldham, Sunday Mercury

IT‘S a dog more commonly associated with Hollywood stars like Paris Hilton.

But solicitor Veronica Hyland splashed out £6,000 on a pedigree Chihuahua – after stealing almost £100,000 from elderly clients.

The corrupt lawyer, 50, is now facing jail after pocketing the money which also paid for a boob reduction job, a £37,000 Audi, private schooling for her kids and a hoard of designer jewellery.

Heartless Hyland stole more than £90,000 from pensioner Doris Carrier just days after the death of her millionaire husband Les – former chairman of Wednesbury steel firm FH Lloyds.

The lawyer had doctored a legal document which allowed her to plunder the widow’s bank accounts.

Last night, a Staffordshire Police source said: “Hyland is despicable and vile. She preyed on elderly and vulnerable clients who trusted her implicitly.

‘‘She then frittered their money on egotistical luxury items, such as a breast reduction operation and a designer dog which cost £6,000.

“Her former clients are shocked and devastated.”

Hyland, of Priory Road in Stone, Staffordshire, admitted 16 counts of theft and fraud by false representation on October 12 at Stafford Crown Court.

She will be sentenced on Friday and can expect a lengthy prison sentence for the breach of trust.

Hyland was working as a wills and probate specialist at Wolverhampton solicitors Dunham Brindley and Linn when she began preying on her elderly clients in 2007.

She had access to dozens of pensioners who paid her varying sums to draw up wills and help them manage their financial affairs.

But on five separate occasions she paid clients’ cheques totalling £600 into her own bank account instead of her firm’s.

The police source said: “She would tell the client, ‘Oh, leave the cheque blank. I’ve got a stamp (bearing the firm’s name) back at the office’.

‘‘She then wrote her own name on the cheques and paid them into her account.”

Thieving Hyland also stole £470 of clients’ cash from her employer’s office in November 2007.

Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

The Tribunal is constituted as a Statutory Tribunal under Section 46 of The Solicitors' Act 1974. The Tribunal adjudicates upon alleged breaches of rules or Code of professional conduct which are designed to protect the public and maintain the reputation of the solicitors' profession for honesty, probity, trustworthiness independence and integrity. The Tribunal has power to strike off a solicitor from the Roll, suspend from practice, fine or reprimand. Fines are payable to H M Treasury. The Tribunal can award costs but not compensation. The Tribunal also adjudicates upon the alleged misconduct of registered foreign lawyers and persons employed by solicitors and hears applications for restoration to the Roll. The Tribunal's decisions can be the subject of appeal to the High Court. The Tribunal currently has about 50 members all of whom are appointed by the Senior Judge called The Master of the Rolls. Two thirds are Solicitor Members and one third Lay drawn from a variety of backgrounds. Brief biographical details of Tribunal Members and of the Clerk and her staff are shown in the Tribunal's Annual Reports. Solicitor Members are wholly independent of the Council of the Law Society and have no connection with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which instigates over 90% of the cases dealt with by the Tribunal. Recent legislation provides for changes in the Tribunal's funding arrangements and the payment of its members for presiding at hearings. 5th Floor, Gate House 1 Farringdon Street London EC4M 7NS Court Rooms: 3rd Floor, Gate House 1 Farringdon Street London EC4M 7NS Tel: (020) 7329 4808 Fax: (020) 7329 4833 e-mail: enquiries@solicitorsdt.com LDE Box No. 395 click here to read more

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Clearly with all these links below that discuss lawyers there is a need for a sensible rating system where clients can obtain a rating that can be relied on for a law firm ( the number of people that have rated the firm will be important) Getting the firm to advise its clients to rate them on the site will also be important and the individual solicitor in the law firm. The idea is for clients to leave a comment and rate their solicitor, barrister and the service they experienced by the court and the judge it is hoped that there are good comments as well as bad comments as this site wants both.

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The purpose of the site is to provide a platform and a search engine to give clients the opportunity to give feed back on their lawyers performance without being sued or threatened by the lawyer and for new clients to do a search on the site and check out their lawyer before giving them an instruction also to see that they have not been reported to the law society in the past or been sued in negligence in the past or stolen clients funds in the past and have treated their clients in accordance with the solicitors rules here are some common issues :-

1. Have the lawyers been clear about their instruction in writing and has the client really understood his instruction and not been misled by the instruction.

2. Make sure the lawyers have not misrepresented their firm or their skill set or that of their staff to the client in terms of brochures, leaflets, or web sites or any other media.

3. The lawyer's conduct while under instruction.

4. How the law firm deals with estimating the work to be done and gives a a fixed estimate that would allow a 15% margin of error currently the law is in a state of flux on this matter.

5. How the law firm deals with the detailed explanation of the actual work undertaken in the invoice and how this relates to the time sheets

6. How the law firm deals with keeping the client advised of any additional work that would need to be agreed first in writing between the parties before the liability can be incurred by the client.

The Client Society v The Law Society . Let justice prevail over procedure

Crooked Lawyer jailed for stealing client funds

Thursday, 3 December 2009

High Court rules Beresfords solicitors should be struck off