78-year-old dishonest solicitor, Phillip Charles York, has been struck off after he borrowed almost £88,000 from his client who suffered from dementia.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), heard how York, failed to complete an estate distribution for Mrs JW after her husband died intestate. Under the pretence of a loan, he transferred nearly £88,000 over a six year period from his client.
York tried to explain why he’d transferred the money to himself, saying that the transfers related to the costs of dealing with the estate. However, during the investigation, it was discovered that the file only had 15 pieces of correspondence and the estate consisting of one major asset, which was subsequently sold in 2010.
York then went on to say that his client had offered to loan him the money. However, there was no evidence in the file to back up his claims and the limited mental capacity of the client would mean that she couldn’t have entered into such a contract.
York did admit his misdemeanour to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and said he’d took it to partly pay his rent.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said:
“She [Mrs JW] did not have the mental capacity to give [York] permission to borrow money and he had taken advantage of this by taking and using funds from [her husband’s] estate without an authority to do so for his own personal benefit.”
The tribunal also found that York had been dishonest with another client. He produced interim bills which were not sent and then deducted money from his client to pay those ‘bills’.
It was discovered that he had asked three more clients to loan him money without telling them he had already taken that sum from their funds.
York has appeared before the tribunal in the past. Back in 1991, he was fined £1,000 over the ‘appalling’ state of his record keeping.
York did not attend the tribunal, and in his absence he was struck off and ordered to pay £14,500 in costs.
He blamed his absence on not being able to afford flights to England from his residence in the West Indies. In mitigation he stated he was made bankrupt in August 2019 and made reference to obtaining a loan to repay the sums he had ‘borrowed’ from the estates. During the investigation, the tribunal found no evidence of insight to back this up.
