The Law Society of Scotland continues to allow dishonest lawyers to work, unknown to potential clients. GLASGOW SOLICITOR CATRIONA MACFARLANE, made famous earlier this year for covering up her mortgage broker husband’s theft of £24,000 of funds from clients she also represented, is the subject of this week’s feature on the new Scottish Legal Consumer Complaints website, well worth a read for Scots consumers of legal & financial services – especially in this case, mortgages, house purchases & sales.
Notably, even though Ms McFarlane was found guilty by the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal, censored, and fined the magnificent sum of £2,500, she is still working as a solicitor – a testament to the ‘ultimate in client protection’ offered by the Law Society of Scotland and hapless Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, ensuring once again that consumers are not safe while lawyers continue to regulate themselves.
Scottish Legal Consumer Complaints - A community based register of those to avoid in the legal profession :
I have previously reported on the Catriona MacFarlane case here : Glasgow lawyer who covered up husband's £24k client theft gets slap on the wrist by Law Society tribunal, continues working & here : Law Society ‘routinely fails to report crime' as Crown Office admits it never received report on Glasgow lawyer theft cover-up investigation
Curiously, the Crown Office refused to prosecute Ms MacFarlane even though the matter was reported to the Lord Advocate herself, as I reported here : Crown Office brought in over mortgage broker’s £24k client theft after Law Society failed to report Glasgow lawyer who 'covered up' for husband
Perhaps Mortgage Fraud, especially when it involves lawyers, is not much of a crime to the Crown Office .. or could it be more to do with the Crown Office being rather reluctant to prosecute lawyers for any offence at all, as I reported here : Justice Secretary 'hush hush' on criminal records of lawyers as Crown Office claims its too costly to keep details on legal profession's crooks
A fine example where the community must step in to protect & ensure all consumers are alerted to the dishonest elements of Scotland’s legal profession. Please visit Scottish Legal Consumer Complaints for more details on elements of Scotland’s legal profession you as consumers & existing or potential clients of solicitors may very well wish to avoid …
Excellent Peter.Champion work !
ReplyDeleteOh I'm very sure Elish Angiolini doesnt like prosectuting lawyers !
ReplyDeleteForty years ago, when the most influential British police chief of the postwar era, Robert Mark, took over as the Metropolitan police commissioner, he made a celebrated and shocking remark. "The basic test of a decent police force is that it catches more criminals than it employs.....and the Met is failing that test".
ReplyDeleteI leave your readers to consider if the same could not be said of the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Parliament, and the scottish legal profession at large.
Hasties must be squirming a bit!
ReplyDeleteGood stuff Peter - dont leave any place for these crooks to hide.Let the Community protection prevail as you say !
ReplyDeleteWhat will you do if some of these crooked lawyers hire a hitman to come kill you ?
ReplyDeleteIs this the outfit where her husband who did the mortgage scam work ?
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=ideal+mortgages&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=ideal+mortgages&hnear=Glasgow&cid=2548941851814523730
Something for you to add to the complaints register :
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/10520413.stm
Convicted Dingwall JP 'unfit' for office
A justice of the peace (JP) convicted of a driving offence and for failing to appear at court has been deemed "unfit for office".
Henry Dedecker, a JP in Dingwall, was convicted of speeding after a trial.
Sheriff Principal Sir Stephen Young recommended a tribunal be held to consider Mr Dedecker's suitability for the role.
The Judicial Office for Scotland said the hearing found him to be "unfit by reason of misbehaviour".
An order removed Mr Dedecker from office with effect from 29 June.
A JP is a person who is not legally qualified and sits in a lay court with a clerk, who provides advice on law and procedure.
The maximum sentence a JP can impose is 60 days imprisonment or a fine of up to £2,500.
wow what a rat! taking the guy's mortgage money and the wife who happens to also be their lawyer covers it up !
ReplyDeleteYour blog gets better every day Peter. Your new Scottish Legal Consumer Complaints Register is brilliant, excellent work. You are a superb campaigner, victory to the dissidents.
ReplyDeleteThe Law Society have done the legal profession no favours saving private Penman.
We have them down here too !
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Solicitor-facing-163-650k-charges/article-2381423-detail/article.html
Solicitor is facing £650k charges
A SOLICITOR has been charged with a massive property fraud worth more than £650,000.
Jason Cornelius, from St Andrew's Close, Mayals, Swansea, faces 16 charges under the Fraud Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act.
No formal pleas were entered when the 36-year-old's case came before Bridgend magistrates, but it was indicated that not guilty pleas would be entered at his next court appearance.
It is alleged that Cornelius, who used to work for the Swansea- based solicitors W Parry and Co, gave false or misleading statements in relation to mortgages on eight properties in Neath and Swansea — houses in Golwg y Bryn, Seven Sisters, Dan y Graig Road, Neath, Tanydarren, Pontardawe, Bryn Awel, Cimla, Pendrill Street, Neath, two houses on Giant's Grave Road, Briton Ferry, and one in Gomer Gardens, Townhill.
The total amount of money involved comes to some £658,000.
Cornelius left the Swansea law firm in June 2009. He was released on bail, and will appear again before magistrates on August 11, when the case will be committed for trial.
Read m
What will you do if some of these crooked lawyers hire a hitman to come kill you.
ReplyDeleteThe lawyers better not harm Peter Cherbi. If Peter was injured or worse the criminality of this profession would be elevated in a way they do not want. Lawyers are bad, but they are also smart enough to know violence would backfire on them, and do their cause no good.
Mr O'Donnell, Mrs MacFarlane and others will highlight that lawyer dishonesty will not be tolerated any more, and they will be driven out of the industry.
Clients will do what the Law Society SLCC will not do, protect the public. I look forward to the Complaints register filling up. Brilliant Peter, F**k the Law Society and SLCC. This is their fault and any balanced solicitor will agree with this statement.
Easy solution to this - boycott any firm she works for and dont use her as a lawyer but also bear in mind how many more Catriona Macfarlanes are going around you dont know about because this Law Society covers it all up.
ReplyDeleteVery worrying.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletewow what a rat! taking the guy's mortgage money and the wife who happens to also be their lawyer covers it up !
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Coverups are common with self regulators, they care not one job about clients. They see the latter as fools to be exploited, and they are masters on exploitation, but that is changing now. People are sick of self regulating criminals.
I wonder what Mill and MacAskill will do now, Scotland owes nothing to lawyers Kenny, the smoke will be coming out of his ears.
I guess no one should get a mortgage from Mr Macfarlane or his wife the lawyer !
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhat will you do if some of these crooked lawyers hire a hitman to come kill you ?
6 July 2010 21:02
I was thinking that myself specially since the Police & Crown Office seem to stand in the background on the crooked lawyers thing.
Another Leslie Cumming and no one caught for that one ?
Considering most of the law firms I know have complaints against them you are going to be very busy!
ReplyDeleteShe was fined a tenth of what her husband took and she tried to cover up.
ReplyDeleteThat proves to me this SSDT & Law Society lawyer protection club is unfit to exist.
Yeah it was Ideal Mortgages and there's more than Mr Wilson in the Macfarlane's victim list
ReplyDeleteIts ridiculous she's still working after doing what she did although being a follower of your blog I'm not surprised the Law Society let her off the hook like they always do with crooks.
ReplyDeleteCensuring & fines are no deterrent to crime - the criminal justice system itself proves that !
I've heard the MacFarlanes are involved in a lot more cases so hope the newspapers have another go at it and why they havent been arrested yet.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for me I have just sent in a complaint to the SLCC about my solicitor but after reading this I dont think they are going to do much
ReplyDeleteYou are popular Peter!
ReplyDeleteEveryone at Justice has been reading your blog this week!
robbers
ReplyDeleteCoverups are the inevitable result of the corrupt system called self regulation.
ReplyDeletePeter's register will over time reverse this trend because law firms like Hasties will by repudiated by clients.
Brilliant work Peter.