TWO crooked ex-lawyers from Inverclyde are right this moment behind bars going through the prospect of prolonged jail sentences after being convicted of cash laundering.
Ian Robertson, 69, and David Lyons, 71, each of Kilmacolm, have been remanded in custody by a decide awaiting their destiny after they have been discovered responsible following a prolonged trial on the Excessive Court docket in Glasgow.
The pair acted together with three different males in offences which included hacking the checking account of a soccer membership proprietor. A decide heard how the unnamed multi-millionaire had virtually £1m taken from his account.
The court docket was advised that just about £1.5m of soiled cash was channelled by Robertson’s regulation agency, primarily based in Paisley.
All 5 males had denied the fees towards them however have been discovered responsible. The legal proceedings have been launched after a Regulation Society of Scotland probe started into the Robertson & Ross authorized agency.
The case centred on 4 separate transactions, with the most important involving the soccer crew proprietor. A decide heard how £985,000 of the businessman’s cash ended up in a shopper account of Robertson’s agency.
The businessman gave no authorisation for the switch and he solely turned conscious of it when he was contacted by his financial institution’s fraud crew. Different offers concerned a £79,340 cheque as a result of be paid to a regulation agency in Jersey plus fraudulent property transactions.
Prosecutor Alan Cameron advised the court docket: “Robertson’s half on this was plain.
“He had entry to the shopper account.”
Robertson, 69, and Lyons, 71, in addition to Mohammed Aziz, 61, of Glasgow, have been convicted of a cost of being concerned in critical organised crime.
The three males, together with Alistair Blackwood, 68, of East Ayrshire, and 67-year-old Robert Ferguson, of Thornliebank, have been additionally discovered responsible of fees underneath the Proceeds of Crime Act, dedicated between 2015 and 2016.
Corrupt Lyons, above left, had beforehand been struck off as a solicitor in 2015, over a separate matter regarding his former observe Lyons Laing in Greenock’s George Sq..
The Scottish Solicitors Self-discipline Tribunal discovered again then that he had embezzled greater than £1m from a financial institution and stated he additionally ‘misappropriated funds from executry accounts’, had breached accounts guidelines and was ‘responsible of a critical catalogue of offending’.
He had secured a mortgage of £1.04 million from the Financial institution of Eire in April 2005 as a way to re-finance credit score amenities offered by one other lender and to pay for ‘extra funding’ – however saved big chunks of the cash for himself.
Lyons, Robertson and the opposite three males will likely be sentenced within the new yr over the Excessive Court docket case.
David Gordon, convener of the Regulation Society of Scotland regulatory committee, advised the Telegraph: “On this case the Regulation Society acted to guard purchasers when critical points have been recognized at regulation agency Roberton & Ross as a part of a routine inspection.
“The Society suspended two solicitors [Robertson and Blackwood] on the agency from observe and efficiently petitioned the Court docket of Session to nominate a judicial issue to guard the agency’s purchasers and the general public curiosity.
“The Regulation Society has strong anti-money laundering measures in place to guard customers and make sure the official providers offered by authorized practices will not be misused for legal functions.
“This end result in court docket highlights the significance of taking swift motion and guaranteeing that issues have been reported to the authorities.”
