By Ashley Young-
A former solicitor has been jailed after defrauding his own firm of 2.3m pounds.
Andrew George Davies pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by false representation at Reading Crown Court, while his friend and client Stephen Allan was convicted on one count of money laundering and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
Incredibly, his picture has not been made available, contradicting the principles of free press which should normally afford a jailed offender are publicly named and shamed. His friend and client Stephen Allan was convicted on one count of money laundering and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
Mr Davies – who actually pleaded guilty in 2019, was also struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) in March 2021 .
The fraud shows the level of dishonesty that still occurs with the legal system amongst solicitors, though only a minority of solicitors commit such offences to bring their reputation to disrepute.
BDB Pitmans’ insurer, QBE, has paid £2.5m to the firm to cover known and unknown losses, with any excess to be returned, according to the statement of facts and outcome he agreed with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and approved by the SDT.
Mr. Daviess offences occurred over a 7 year period. Between 2010 and 2017, Mr Davies, 59, paid personal invoices to himself from Pitmans, where he had been a partner since 1996 and was head of commercial property.
Mr Davies submitted self-authorized payment request forms in his own handwriting. These would often use an abbreviation in the ‘payable to’ box to hide the true identity of the beneficiary. He also raised invoices to pay to Mr Allan, 62, who was a property developer and client to the law firm.
On Mr Davies’ case in the agreed statement, the client, anonymised as ‘SPA’, was unaware that the funds had been improperly withdrawn or that it was client money; he had said he “needed to get money out” of the firm, while the client needed the cash.
Mr Allan would then “drip feed” this back to Mr Davies’s personal account and, according to Thames Valley Police, he also pocketed around £400,000 himself.