Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Scotland's Got Crooked : Police investigation reveals hundreds of crooked lawyers & accountants assisting organised crime gangs

Law Society of ScotlandHundreds of Law Society of Scotland ‘crooked lawyers’ are helping crime gangs. A survey reported today in the Scotsman newspaper reveals what many inside & outside the legal profession already know - that organised crime gangs in Scotland are assisted by hundreds of crooked lawyers, crooked accountants and other "specialists" who help criminals evade justice.

Law Society of Scotland & ICASScottish lawyers & accountants self-regulate, allowing criminality to flourish in their professions. While the self regulating bodies of lawyers & accountants in Scotland - the Law Society of Scotland & the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland profess to maintain their 'respective' professions in order, in reality hundreds of solicitors & accountants and their firms are in the pay of criminal gangs, with some of those concerned masquerading as small legal or accountancy firms, taking on innocent local clients & businesses to cover the profits generated from some of their less respectable associations.

Cash laundering link to law chief stabbing - Scotland on Sunday 29 January 2006Law Society chief Leslie Cumming suffered mafia style hit from his own crooked lawyer colleagues. While members of the public who trust their legal affairs to solicitors & legal firms who have an undisclosed darker side of clientele, even the Law Society of Scotland itself was hit in a mafia style assault in early 2006, when the solicitor's regulatory body's Chief Accountant, Leslie Cumming was attacked in a 'hit' arranged from within Scotland's crooked legal establishment over what some claim were investigations which involved big legal names,

Douglas Mill 4Law Society Chief Exec Douglas Mill tried to pin blame on campaigners in newspaper reports on Cumming attack but real culprits were crooked lawyers. To-date, the assault on Mr Cumming, apparently arranged by colleagues from within the legal profession itself, remains unresolved, with Lothian & Borders Police still looking for clues. However, several legal insiders say the investigation into the attack on Cumming “was heavily compromised” after the then Law Society of Scotland's Chief Executive Douglas Mill viciously tried to implicate campaigners & law reformers in the mafia style hit on Mr Cumming, to deflect attention away from critical legislative reforms which were due later in 2006 and which ultimately led to Mill's subsequent downfall and resignation from the Law Society after a serious parliamentary confrontation with Cabinet Secretary for Business, John Swinney.

Lothian & Borders Police still looking for crooked lawyers who arranged attack on Law Society Chief :

With an ever growing criminal element within Scotland’s legal profession, we are of course, back to the problem of 'self regulation' where, specifically on the matter of 'crooked lawyers', the Law Society of Scotland has failed to maintain standards within Scotland's legal profession, and all the while has operated a closed shop, highly corrupt system of self regulation where the criminal element of Scotland's 10,000 solicitors can basically get away with criminality, as long as they pay their subscription fees to the Law Society, which help the Society continue to maintain its power of self regulation over the profession.

SLCC membersScottish Legal Complaints Commission is as protective of crooked lawyers as the Law Society of Scotland. The £650 a year to the Law Society of Scotland in annual subscriptions, and the £400 complaints levy to the SLCC which solicitors willingly pay, keeps self regulation of the legal profession going, which allows solicitors to assist the likes of criminal gangs, or fleece clients at will, mostly without fear of a criminal prosecution because the Law Society, and as we see now, the new ‘independent’ Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, are both so incompetent or closed minded at investigating corruption within the legal profession that the evidence which the Police & Crown Office would have to rely on to prosecute solicitors for stealing from their clients is more often than not, covered up by the solicitors regulators.

money£650 a year to fund Law Society ‘ in-house complaints system’ guarantees lawyers will face no charges over widespread criminality in handling client affairs or law breaking. Its as simple as that - pay £650 a year in subscription fees, and a crooked lawyer can go do what they please, overcharge, embezzle, steal, bend the law, bribe, act as drug dealers, threaten clients, blackmail, anything, and not get sent to jail, unless of course, whatever they are doing and whoever they are representing becomes just too public and attracts too much media attention.

It may well be the case you are unknowingly entrusting your life savings, last will & testament, or funds for a house purchase or sale to a solicitor who is little more than a convicted criminal, and you will never know it unless the law is changed, and there is considerable resistance from the legal profession in Scotland to changing the law to disclose the criminal records of solicitors, although in England & Wales, you do stand a greater chance of finding out, as I reported earlier, here : Criminal records of lawyers : Scots public kept in dark over convictions while England & Wales get ‘right to know’

Sadly the Scots legal profession, as crooked as it is, has far too many key supporters & defenders in high places, as Scotland’s own Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill himself demonstrated in outrageous comments during a Scottish Parliament debate, even claiming the SNP controlled minority Scottish Government owed the legal profession a mysterious ‘great debt’ :

Would Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill be so quick to defend the criminal element of Scotland’s legal profession ?

This is the reality of self regulation, nothing more than a cover for criminality, and with business & profits on the slide in Scotland's legal & accounting professions, expect to see a lot more crooked lawyers, accountants and other so-called 'professionals' out there who might also just be your solicitor or accountant too.

Those who defend self regulation are, these days, in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandals, generally viewed as defending unacceptable, often morally wrong conduct, cronyism & criminality, and in my view, have no place in public life.

The Scotsman reports :

The gangster map: 3,000 hardcore criminals and their crooked lawyers

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

£650 a year to stay out of jail - nice one !

and I bet they claim it back against their poor clients too.bastards

Anonymous said...

£650 a year to fund Law Society ‘ in-house complaints system’ guarantees lawyers will face no charges over widespread criminality in handling client affairs or law breaking.
-----------------------------------

Lawyers are complaining about this, £650.00 is not a large sum for legal protection of this sort. Armed robbers steal money and have to deal with police firearms units, rightly so.
Lawyers steal clients money and the police cannot do anything about it because the so called pofessionals, who deal with complaints from lawyers clients cover things up.
This is like the taxpayer having friends in the Inland Revenue who distort tax returns so that no tax is paid. then year after year no tax is paid.The authorities would come down on them like a ton of bricks. Parliament could never allow taxpayers to regulate themselves. it is an offence to defraud the government, but acceptable for lawyers to defraud clients. No doubt the lawyers being taxpayers will extort some more money from clients, and get their crooked accountants to protect them.

Anonymous said...

I am a firm believer in hanging all crooked lawyers and those who defend them!

Anonymous said...

Yes plenty crooked lawyers and plenty crooked cops too!

Don't forget the cops are self regulating too Peter.Its high time it was taken away from them just as much as lawyers and the rest of them.

Anonymous said...

What a headline !

I am thinking along the lines of Douglas Haggarty and his lawyer singing in a choir assisted by a rent boy backing group with Law Society stooges throwing toilet paper into the audience !

Anonymous said...

Oh so its official, crooked lawyers do exist - 250 to be precise - and are not just a figment of other's wild, unfettered imagination.

While there is no shame in being a slow learner Dr. Elvins report will I fear find its way into the hands of those who for decades have obstructed any meaningful access by the Scottish Public to the Law and due process.

Just ask Mr. Cumming.

Equally guilty are those who stand by and - once elected to Office - say and do nothing. Stand up Mr. Swinney and Mr. Salmond.

Anonymous said...

From the hootsmon :
Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill described the extent of organised crime in Scotland as "very concerning". He said: "They cannot and will not be allowed to spread their criminal networks, and today's announcement will go a very long way towards thwarting them."

Yet he defends his pals in the legal world and says he (or we) owe them a debt ? F*CK OFF KENNY.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE READ THIS FROM AN PREVIOUS ARTICLE OF MR CHERBI'S.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SUE A LAWYER--THEY CAN DO WHAT THEY WANT TO YOU SO YOU MUST NEVER TRUST THEM.

"If you try and sue a lawyer, you will find your lawyers are insured by Marsh & RSA, your crooked lawyer and their lawyers will be insured both by Marsh & RSA, the Sheriff or Judge in your case is a subscribing member of the Law Society of Scotland and this is also be insured by Marsh & RSA, and several of the Scottish Courts Service staff, as well as the Auditor of the Court, have similar insurance arrangements.

I think anyone would agree there is a problem in that - a client is fighting a system where everyone excempt the client, pays into the same insurance arrangement the client is trying to claim against.. There is certainly a conflict of interest, which time & again, prevents negligence claims against crooked lawyers from ever getting a fair hearing. How can a member of the client go into court when everyone except themselves is insured by the same insurers and all except themselves will benefit if their claim & case are dismissed ... Most peoplw would call that a fit-up".

THE INSURERS WOULD PUT LAW FIRMS PREMIUMS UP, AND YOU WOULD NEVER GET LEGAL AID OR A LAWYER TO REPRESENT YOU SO THIS ARRANGEMENT MEANS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SUE A LAWYER. THE LAWYERS ARE IN BED WITH THE INSURERS SCRATCHING EACH OTHERS BACKS.

DOCTORS ARE ALSO INSURED BY THE SAME COMPANY. IF YOU TRY TO SUE YOUR EMPLOYER, YOUR GP WILL COVER UP WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU TO STOP THE GP PRACTICE INSURANCE PREMIUMS GOING UP. EVEN IF YOU FIND THIS OUT NO LAWYER WILL GO AGAINST YOUR FAMILY DOCTOR. IF YOU HAVE TRIED TO SUE YOUR EMPLOYER FOR INJURING YOU, YOUR GP HAS COVERED EVERYTHING UP, YOU CAN BE SURE OF THAT.

ACCOUNTANTS ARE ALSO INSURED THIS WAY, SO THESE PROFESSIONALS PROTECT THE INSURERS, AND THE INSURERS PROTECT THE ACCOUNTANTS.

THEY DO NOT TELL YOU THIS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO EXPLOIT YOU TO MAKE MONEY, WITH THE PRESENT SYSTEM YOU CANNOT WIN.

Anonymous said...

Good on the Police for this work, hopefully they can collect enough evidence to put the gangs and the lawyers behind bars.

We do not want guns on our streets or crooked lawyers supporting these people.

Anonymous said...

I just read that Scotland on Sunday story about Leslie Cumming

You should sue Douglas Mill and the Law Society for what they said now its been revealed one of their own did it.

Anonymous said...

Interesting story but don't you think it took the Police a bit too long to admit all this ? After all lawyers have been assisting crooks for years but why the sudden worry ? Isn't it the case the Police bug lawyers phones and conversations anyway ?
Isn't it the case there are plenty bent Police out there who get favours from these crooks and their crooked lawyers too ? Remember the Edinburgh Police Chief who was supposed to be dealing properties with a drug dealer and nothing happened about that ?

Anyone remember the saying it takes a crook to catch a crook ? I'd be wary of whatever the Police try and spin out of this too .

Anonymous said...

Cops and lawyers are about as bad as each other.They also keep each other in business and wages !

Anonymous said...

Those who defend self regulation are, these days, in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandals, generally viewed as defending unacceptable, often morally wrong conduct, cronyism & criminality, and in my view, have no place in public life.

You are spot on Peter.When someone gets up and defends self regulation they are definitely as crooked as those they are defending.

Anonymous said...

Health and Safety law at work is irrelevant when lawyers and doctors are insured by the same insurance company.

How many law firms have shares in insurance companies? These professionals get a nice bonus or dividends for covering what happens to you at work.

Anonymous said...

If I was Hitler I would have gassed all lawyers.

Anonymous said...

Both the Law Society and ICAS have many political friends as you point out so do not be too surprised if a few crooked politicians turn up among all these crooked lawyers & accountants & crime gangs.

Anonymous said...

To-date, the assault on Mr Cumming, apparently arranged by colleagues from within the legal profession itself, remains unresolved, with Lothian & Borders Police still looking for clues.

CLEARLY WE HAVE A LAWYER BASED MAFIA OPERATING IN SCOTLAND. THE CLUES THE POLICE REQUIRE ARE PROBABLY WITHIN THE LAW SOCIETY.

Anonymous said...

Gorden Brown is in the brown stuff, but people should not bother voting. The rules on expenses need changing. We will see a vote of no confidence in Brown soon but people are sick of politics. The MP's only have themselves to blame for this. Another group of corrupt bastards.

Anonymous said...

MP claimed £1000 a month and didn’t have to submit receipts

May 28 2009 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

LANARK and Hamilton East MP Jimmy Hood has been drawn into the Parliamentary expenses row.

Documents leaked to the Telegraph show that the former miner claimed up to £1000 per month without providing receipts.

Mr Hood has designated a flat in London as his second home and was allowed, under Parliamentary rules, to claim £23,083 in so-called ‘Additional Cost Allowance’ towards its upkeep.

It has been the abuse of the ASA, with some MPs ‘flipping’ the designation of their second home to maximise their claim, that has caused so much public anger.

Prior to April last year, MPs did not have to provide receipts for some categories of second home-linked expenditure, providing claims totalled under £250 per month.

Documents sent to the Telegraph showed that Mr Hood claimed £200 per month for cleaning his second home and up to £200 per month on “repairs insurance and security”.

Most of these claims, submitted over a four-year period, were less than £250... and, therefore, did not require receipts.

Mr Hood also claimed:

l £400 per month for food, the maximum allowed without receipts, over 11 months in 2004-05.

l £200 for food in August, 2004, when the Commons was in recess.

l Between £445.14 and £728.68 for mortgage interest on his designated second home.

l £1500 for furniture.

l £1400 for carpets.

l Over £1000 for electrical goods including £489.95 for a 26-inch LCD television.

Lesmahagow-born Mr Hood, who is paid a salary of more than £64,000 a year, was 61 last month and has been a Lanarkshire MP for 22 years.

In April he called for the scrapping of the additional cost allowance through which he claimed a total of £115,227 between 2001 and 2007.

This week, he again reiterated his view that the ACA was no longer sustainable and said mortgage claims should be capped at £1000 per month.

He added: “I cannot commute from my constituency in Lanarkshire to the House of Commons, so I purchased a second-floor flat in a former Christian Housing Association Estate four miles from Westminster.

“I have not flipped or changed my second home designation during this time.

“Under the old rules, it was permissible for MPs to furnish the flat, but of course the new rules will change this practice. It was also permissible to claim for the costs of cleaning, repairs and insurance, as well as service charges and factoring charges.”

He added: “I fully support the changes made to the rules and have been in favour of all receipts going online for some time, because the public want more transparency.”

Meanwhile, details of the expenses of Hamilton’s other MP, Tommy McAvoy, whose wife and son both work part-time for him, are due to go online today (Thursday).

Between 2001 and 2007, he claimed ACA totalling £119,732 but also declared in Parliament’s Register of Interests that he derives rental income from a residential flat in London.

He said that “not a single penny had been claimed from the taxpayer for this flat”.

However, the Taxpayers’ Alliance said the ACA had been used by some MPs to build up a property portfolio.

“If he has a flat in London already, he should stay in that one and save the taxpayer the cost of the allowance,” added a spokesman.

Anonymous said...

That lot in the picture of the slcc look like they should be in an id parade !

Anonymous said...

"Almost 250 crooked lawyers, accountants and other "specialists" give criminals professional help, it shows."

Yes they gave Leslie Cumming a lot of help, didn't they !

I'd put the number of crooked lawyers at 8,000 if anyone bothers to note the complaints statistics of 5000 a year

http://sacl.info/ said...

250 bent lawyers sounds a low figure if there are 10,000 lawyers on the go.

I think the Law Society probably got to the research team and told them to water down the stats a bit.Am I right ?

Good point too about you not knowing who else your lawyer is representing.I think we need to be told who exactly are the 250 so we can steer clear of them!

Anonymous said...

When I told another lawyer I wanted my lawyer prosecuted I was told
"The legal system is not for that".
I hope the lawyer who said this formerly of Leonards in Cadzow Street Hamilton reads this.

Anonymous said...

Peter there are two organised crime gangs, one called the Law Society and the other The SLCC.
Our legal system is run by criminals, who think we have no right to question them.

Anonymous said...

Lawyers are organised self protecting criminals. Discrimination is omnipotent if you are a victim of one of Scotlands ten thousand crooked lawyers.
It all starts in law school, where lawyers teach students to become graduate criminals.

Anonymous said...

There is no greater pleasure in life than a lawyer who is terminally ill. That is something that their crooked colleagues cannot fix for them.
They are as scummy as paedophiles.

Anonymous said...

Marsh UK must be doing great things for MacAskill and his cronies.

Marsh UK insure the Scottish Parliament.

Marsh UK insure the Indemnity Master Fund of the Law Society of Scotland, that is meant to compensate victims of crooked lawyers.

Alex Salmond appointed MacAskill (a lawyer) as Justice Minister.

MacAskill puts lawyers in the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, which is a department of the Law Society.

Lawyers do not expose corrupt colleagues.

Result--Marsh UK never need to worry about compensating victims of crooked lawyers, because there are no crooked lawyers when lawyers investigate complaints about other lawyers. A stitch up if ever there was one. The insurers bribe the government, who keep lawyers in the complaints process. But there is a fly in the ointment, THE PRESS.

PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND, LAWYERS CAN DO WHAT THEY WANT TO YOU BECAUSE OF THE FINANCIAL SWEETNERS PROVIDED BY MARSH UK.
KENNY MACASKILL IS THE JUSTICE MINISTER. HE SHOULD LOOK UP THE DICTIONARY BECAUSE THE MAN STANDS FOR INJUSTICE, MSP's AND LAWYERS (SOME ARE BOTH) ARE LINING THEIR POCKETS IN A PROTECTION RACKET WHICH KEEPS LAWYERS REPUTATIONS CLEAN, AND PREVENTS MARSH UK PAYING THE VICTIMS OF THE LEGAL MAFIA WE HAVE IN SCOTLAND.

Please note, the professionals who demand respect in our courts, are criminals and we do not get to know the extent of their criminality in many cases because
LAWYERS INVESTIGATE COMPLAINTS FROM THE PUBLIC ABOUT LAWYERS.

I ask lawyers reading this to challenge my statement. Lawyers like evidence, as long as it does not put a colleague in the dock. The Law Society, that most crooked of institutions, has it's influence over the law schools for the purpose of influencing the next generation or crooked lawyers.

Anonymous said...

I think we should all be made aware of the names of these crooked lawyers & accountants.Get on the job Peter and find it out please so we can safely avoid dealing with these criminal thugs.

Anonymous said...

Yes.Damn right !
We should be told the names since they've went out and done all this spin in the papers about it.

NAMES MACASKILL NOW

Anonymous said...

So MacAskill is freely admitting all these f*cking crooks are running around Scotland and he cant catch them ?

Isnt that as good a reason as any for this twit to resign along with the incompetent keystone cops who obviously are no good at their job

Anonymous said...

I know one of the lawyers he has set up his wife to take the blame for all his wrongs will she get a fair hearing he is saying she hit him and and stops him from seeing any of his pals other way round he did'nt want anyone to know about his long afair with his lover also he is saying she made him spend money on her and there child what a joke the guy is 6foot he has given false name in court does not pay for anything gets away with it also sets up Ltd company with pals WILL SHE GET A FAIR HEARING & THRE CHILD this Guy does not know how to tell the truth