Don’t they vet these guys?
Not that I’m in any way related to an organisation that could be viewed as linked to Solicitors in England or Wales or anything. But, ooh yes I am and we had 10 year+ background checks. For those now even more confused MG happens to be well, um, a voting council member. I wonder if he’ll lend me a tenner?
Clipped from PA News, although I hope some in Southwark may let me nw some more as and when.
1 COURTS Solicitors
LAWYERS ACCUSED OF LAUNDERING MILLIONS FROM VAT FRAUD
By Melvyn Howe, PA
A fledgling law firm teamed up with some of its "dodgy clients" to launder almost £200m from a massive VAT fraud, a court heard today.
Based above an Indian restaurant, the small practice, launched just a year earlier with an overdraft facility, effectively transformed its "sacrosanct" client account into a busy bank, it was claimed.
The number of six-figure sums they were "washing" every day eventually grew so "intense" that office staff were left little time for other duties, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.
Ian Glen QC, prosecuting, said that, according to the bogus invoices produced by those at the centre of the "huge" tax swindle, large numbers of computer chips and mobile phones were being traded by an array of companies.
But, he claimed, in reality the seven concerns, variously posing as catering supply wholesalers, toy dealers, furniture suppliers and other types of operations, were shells that had "no assets and were not worth anything".
However, by being registered for VAT, tens of millions of pounds in illegally-claimed refunds were pocketed by those masterminding the "carousel fraud". And, by lending their "name and respectability" to the operation, the law firm bestowed an air of "legitimacy" to the money they were moving around.
In the dock are solicitors Sarah Beveridge, 38, of Merlin Close, Winkfield Row, Berkshire, and Matthew Gauntlett, 41, from Fallowfield, Yately, Hampshire, and management clerk Laurence Ford, 54, of Old Cove Road, Fleet, Hampshire.
All deny one count of money laundering between July 1, 2001, and February 13, 2003.
2 COURTS Solicitors
Opening the six-week case, Mr Glen said the Yateley-based firm Beveridge Gauntlette rose from the ashes of another practice six years ago.
"As you might expect, they needed some financing to start off and applied for a £35,000 overdraft," he said.
"They were not fat cats as lawyers are often thought of. In fact, they were in a fairly tight situation."
But despite their obvious "infancy", a year after their launch "big sums" up to £500,000 at a time were flooding through their client account.
"The Crown says their client account was being used to wash this money. In effect, the solicitors were providing banking services for these companies, not legal advice or representation."
The barrister claimed the defendants' drift into dishonesty earned them tens of thousands of pounds and may have been triggered by their contact with some "rather dodgy clients".
One, he said, was Sandeep Gill and another Waseem Alyas - both "well known" to Ford who had represented both men "in some criminal matters" during the money laundering operation.
"He couldn't be in any doubt that they were at least accused criminals and that may help you in deciding whether he suspected it was criminal money that was going through the client account," Mr Glen told jurors.
"Did the partners not know he was doing this? It was a small office ... did they not take an interest in the men Mr Ford was introducing to the firm?
"Were they not aware their client account was being used like a bank?
"After all, the intensity of the transactions was such that some of the staff were spending a substantial part of the day dealing with this money ... if you were one of the partners there, would you not notice?" he added.
The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.
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251738 APR 06