By David Young-
A former solicitor, Alan Osmond, has escaped jail after being handed an 18-month suspended sentence, 100 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £5,000 in fees to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Alan Osmond was sentenced for forgery and tipping off during a money laundering and bribery case at the Old Bailey today, after being found guilty two weeks ago. He is the first solicitor to ever be prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office.
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Osmond, 69, who had pleaded not guilty during the trial, has resigned as a solicitor but still retains his position as the managing partner at law firm Osmond & Osmond.
Osmond, who was acting money laundering reporting officer for the firm had been warned not to tip his client off about the investigation, but he immediately contacted his client to inform him about the investigation and went on to meet Mr Ramsay to discuss the matter across the next five months.
He even flew to Mr Ramsay’s home in Malta the following week and met him at a West London private dining club.
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Osmond supplied the SFO with a fake letter of engagement outlined his role as solicitor for a British Virgin Islands company which was purchased by Ramsay and used to move funds for the purchase of the London property.
SFO investigators searched Osmond’s office in 2019 and found five pages of handwritten notes on his discussions with Ramsay, as well as computer files that showed his forgery.
Despite facing serious charges, character statements provided by Osmond himself from family members and a former business associate painted him as a generous and decent man. His children were present in court during the sentencing.
Originally, the SFO sought approximately £300,000 in costs related to the case Osmond interfered with and the time he was under investigation.
The money laundering and bribery case was dropped due to concerns that evidence could be destroyed as a result of Osmond’s actions.
Judge Trawler, presiding over the case, expressed reservations about the requested fees, describing them as ‘astronomical.’ A breakdown revealed that the fees for the trial period and sentencing alone amounted to £41,552 in 2023, with £24,000 attributed to staff fees and £17,000 to council fees.
Osmond’s representative argued that these charges would be financially crippling for Osmond, especially since he was planning to sell the firm. The representative highlighted Osmond’s limited financial resources, with only a few thousand pounds in his bank account, a substantial mortgage, and most outgoings covered by credit cards.
The defense contended that Osmond’s actions were not driven by financial motives but stemmed from naivety, suggesting that this should not warrant a custodial sentence. However, Judge Trawler emphasized the gravity of tipping off during an investigation, stating that such actions could cause significant damage and, therefore, merit the maximum sentence.
Addressing Osmond, Judge Trawler noted, “As a lawyer, you knew exactly that this was a criminal offence,” rejecting the argument that the actions were naive mistakes.
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