Solicitor steals to pay compensation

An incompetent solicitor stole money from clients in order to pay other clients the level of damages they had expected in compensation claims. The solicitor was jailed for 18 months after admitting seven charges of theft totalling £99,400 and one of forgery. He was apparently unable to admit to clients that he had failed to negotiate appropriate compensation, and was therefore forced to steal from other clients to make up the difference. The judge said: “In all his offending, he was merely covering his own incompetence.”