By David Young-
A former partner with a London firm who transferred ownership of his late client’s £1m home within five months of her death has been struck off the roll, following a tribunal hearing today.
James Allie, 52 (pictured),formerly with now-closed Hackney firm Spence & Horne, also moved more than £820,000 from his client’s estate into his personal bank account.
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The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Allie, who was the executor of the will, used the cash to buy a flat worth £586,000, which he moved into after being evicted from his own home.
Solicitor James Allie, 50, had been appointed the executor of Ruth Ballin’s will, but instead of adhering to the instructions of administration, he secretly used some of it to purchase a property.
The wealthy woman, who died in June 2016, had left her fortune to the Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust charity.
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Mr Allie, who at the time worked for legal firm Spence and Horne, hid the news of the bequest from the charity for more than two years, the court was told.
Instead, the councillor is said to have ‘utilised’ her assets to buy a £580,000 property in Brent, where he resided since it was purchased in 2017.
A High Court judge in 2019 now ordered Mr Allie to hand over the house, which was bought through a company of which he was sole director, plus any remaining money from the estate.
Mr Allie, also Labour Councillor, has represented the Alperton ward in Brent, north-west London, since 2005, first as a Lib Dem before defecting to Labour in 2012. He also ran for parliament as a Lib Dem in Brent North in the 2010 general election.
The solicitor was found to have acted dishonestly and was struck off the roll, as well as being ordered to pay £25,000 costs.
Allie, who was not present or represented at the hearing, had claimed in correspondence with the Solicitors Regulation Authority that he wanted to increase the value of the client’s estate by converting her home into flats and by using her money to invest in more property.
Andrew Bullock, for the SRA, said Allie’s explanation made ‘precious little sense and is in reality a pack of lies’. Bullock added: ‘This is in reality an exercise done entirely for his own benefit, not for the benefit of the trust and the story of this all being about maximising value to the estate is something he comes up with when his actions are discovered.’
The tribunal heard that Allie, 52, had been a solicitor for four years when he became a partner in the firm in 2014.
His client died in June 2016 and by November 2016 – before probate had been granted – he had transferred her Brent home to his name. The bank transfers occurred two months later.
None of the residual beneficiaries of the estate, including an education charity that stood to receive the highest amount from the proceeds was kept abreast with steps the solicitor fraudster was taking.
Alarm was eventually raised about monies being diverted to Allie’s personal account on 25 other matters. He faced separate allegations of misappropriation after admitting that he opened a separate bank account with the firm’s name and arranged for fees to be paid into this account and effectively to him.
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