A picture is worth a thousand words - Images of fraud reveal corruption & deceit by lawyers & accountants in the Scottish Borders

It's always good to put a face to a crook - as an old retired Policeman friend of mine says ... and to be sure, a 'big wheel' in the Roxburghshire Bar Association has obliged, by sending me a picture of the infamous Norman Howitt - the accountant who was executor of my late father's estate, and not content with ruining that, he decided to steal my mothers money too.

Norman Howitt, Chartered Accountant, JRW Group Galashiels :

To my surprise, a well known Borders lawyer has broken ranks and sent me a big fat file on Norman Howitt and his firm, Welch & Co, Accountants - where there seem to have been a few problems with clients swept under the carpet .. in true tradition Howitt style.

In fact, Howitt seems to have a few sidelines as well as his main business as an Accountant, all the worse for the poor people of the Borders sadly ... where rip off after rip off is the norm. I certainly wouldn't be trusting a man who stole a pensioner's state pension book, bank book & tried to take the rest of her assets, not to mention causing the occasional client to go bankrupt .... and I will show you some of what I mean the following images of fraud, deception and greed ...

You can see why I don't care much for Norman Howitt in this next picture, which is of my mum's pension book, which Norman Howitt stole for himself.

Bit odd that one, isn't it ? An accountant, stealing an old age pensioner's state income book ? garnishing it for his own custody ? How many accountants keep clients pension books for themselves - and who at the Benefits Agency handed over the pension book in the first place ?

What, pray tell, could Howitt's defence be on that one ? Something like perhaps " Oh, m'lord, I desperately needed an elderly woman's pension book to keep by my bedside ..."

Bit sick, isn't it ? .. and even worse ... some bent official at the Benefits Agency in Galashiels gave Mr Howitt my mum's pension book - no strings attached ! .. then covered up the whole thing when enquiries were made as to what happened to it. Could it be a few palms were greased by Mr Howitt on this one ?

No wonder the lawyer who sent me a batch of files on Mr Howitt's antics for other poor clients, says Howitt is now known to some as "Pension Book Howitt" .. after what he did to my mum. Do you know any accountants, or indeed, other 'so-called' professionals such as lawyers & the like, who confiscate their clients pension books ? Answers in the comments section please.

Norman Howitt's greed didn't stop there though .. oh no ... it got much worse .. just look at these next images of a bank book belonging to my mother ... where, again, Norman Howitt confiscated the Bank book for himself (after setting up the account in the first place) and it was then systematically drained over a few weeks, until my very tearful & upset mum broke down in the house and told me she was being robbed blind by Howitt and a long lost relative, Susan Begley, who was about to go bankrupt & saw my mum as an easy target to con 15,000 plus as much more as she could get - all with the blessing of Norman Howitt.

It gets worse of course - much worse. Not content with taking my mum's pension book and bank accounts, Norman Howitt decided to take everything she had, and create a secret trust which he would manage himself, and of course, force my mum to pay him for doing so, all done in collaboration with my mother's crooked lawyer Nigel Hall of Haddon & Turnbull Solicitors, Hawick. Here are copies of the secret trust documents which were drawn up by Norman Howitt to keep control of my mum's money for himself .... :

You might be wondering how on earth Norman Howitt was able to do all this, and how my mum appointed him to represent her affairs. Well, as you can see from this next letter, which my mum told me she had to write out from a typed letter which was put in front of her to copy, she was forced by her niece, one Mrs Susan Begley, of Charlesfield, StBoswells, Scottish Borders, & Norman Howitt to write and sign the letter - without a witness or consultation with anyone, appointing Howitt and Welch & Co Accountants - Norman Howitt's company, as her agents. The most important condition of this signing, was, that the whole thing was to be kept secret from me !

Now, one might think that's a bit strange, my mum appointing Norman Howitt as her agent .. because Norman Howitt was executor of the estate of my father, who my mum had obtained a divorce from in 1989 .. so how could the executor of my late father's estate also represent my mother, who had a claim on my father's estate ? ... bit of a conflict of interest there one might say ? .. well .. yes .. but as you can see, going back to the terms of the secret trust deed which Norman Howitt set up for his own control - he was obviously hell bent on keeping every single penny of my late father's estate for himself - not allowing me, my mum or anyone to have a claim or secure any inheritance on it .. and my mum was simply used as an excuse to obtain full control over the money & estate for his own ends .. along with of course, the ends of crooked lawyer Andrew Penman, who knew every detail about this extensive con for some time ... We now come to a letter which Norman Howitt, Susan Begley, and my mother's lawyer, Nigel Hall, who saw a great benefit to himself in what Norman Howitt & Begley were proposing, forced my mum to sign, again without consultation to anyone else, and under tight condition of secrecy, instructing that any money my mum receive, be given direct to her con artist relative, Susan Begley.

Now, there's a problem with this letter as you can see - a fairly major problem ... THE DATE. If you co back to the handwritten letter my mum was forced to sign appointing Norman Howitt and Welchs Accountants as her agents .. you will see the date on that letter is 30.10.1991 but the typed letter which requires that my mums money be given direct to her con artist niece, Susan Begley (a close friend of Norman Howitt by now) .. has a date of "April 1990" which would make that 17 months earlier. It seems the incompetence of faking files & documents & arranging the secret theft of much of my mum's money grew even more of a strain for Norman Howitt, Susan Begley and crooked lawyer Nigel Hall, because we now come to a letter typed by Nigel Hall, dated 20th February 1992, confirming that the payment of 15,000 had been made to Susan Begley (Mr & Mrs James Begley).

So what he have here folks, is a rather complicated embezzlement of my mum's money, by a crooked accountant, a crooked lawyer, and a long lost niece who was on the verge of bankruptcy .... and each of the players certainly seemed to enjoy their part to the hilt - they certainly profited from it extensively. Norman Howitt, of course, got off with not even a slap on the wrist from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, because as you can see from the investigation of my complaint against crooked Howitt's activities, the Director of Legal Services for ICAS - Tom McMorrow, covered the whole thing up in his response to my complaint.

Funnily enough, there is no mention in McMorrow's investigation of Howitt's stealing of my mum's pension book, bank book & the secret trust .. as well as a few other things, but Tom McMorrow is well used to covering up for crooked accountants, so that's no surprise at all. If you think that's bad ... remember Norman Howitt also filed false reports with Lothian & Borders Police at Wilton Hill, Hawick to try and cover up the fact he had stolen my late father's car and sold it to a friend ... which I wrote about here : Complaining against a lawyer ? You should expect a knock from the Police .. and even worse was to come ....

When my mum died in tragic circumstances, through hospital negligence, Norman Howitt, Andrew Penman, and the Bosses at the Law Society of Scotland thought they had won the lottery

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Norman Howitt was busy celebrating with crooked lawyer Andrew Penman that the death of my mum would take such a toll on me, betting that I would also die, and that would be the end of their problems. They were of course, wrong.

So, Norman James Howitt, Chartered Accountant, is still at large, according to my legal source from the Borders, ripping off clients again ... and has worked his way into a Directorship of the well known Eildon Housing Association in the Borders, and is also a Board member of the Borders College in Galashiels . Norman Howitt is also an official with Scottish Building - where he can be contacted to recommend building companies for work.

You can all see why I don't really care much for Norman Howitt, or these crooked lawyers such as Andrew Penman, Nigel Hall, and the rest. Howitt wanted me dead. He still does, because he hates me publicising this story on what he did and got away with. He lied to the Police, he lied to his own regulatory body, ICAS, he lied to clients, and he lied to everyone who asked him what he had done. He is definitely a dangerous person, a liar, and a thief, and be warned - he will do the same to anyone, as he did to my family, and preying on the elderly, as he did with my poor mum, came very easy to him.

This is all, sadly, just another example of how a fraudster can get away with fraud ... as Norman Howitt certainly seems to done .. but its always good to put a face to a crook, as my old retired Policeman friend says .... and it's good to publish what that crook did .. just incase others fall to the same fate ... and maybe, just maybe, it might work to get rid of the way in which crooked accountants fiddle complaints against other crooked accountants ... as happened here.