Solicitor jailed for £1.5m fraud (From Oxford Mail)

Solicitor jailed for £1.5m fraud

5:56pm Friday 31st July 2009 in

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AN OXFORD lawyer who helped a gang of criminals drain £1.5m from a wealthy banker’s account has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Graham Leather, 59, from Risinghurst, worked with the gang to allow his law firm’s client account to be used to make the funds transfer appear legitimate.

Millionaire City banker Mark Couling woke up on New Year’s Eve 2007 to find his account had been emptied, after Barclays Bank worker Zhiwei Fan, 27, hacked into his account.

Leather, a partner in Oxford law firm Ferguson Bricknell, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud after a 10-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, in London.

'You were an integral and significant part of this conspiracy. You were dishonest through and through.'

Recorder Ian Darling

He will now be thrown out of the legal profession by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

Fan, of Woodcock Court, Three Mile Cross, near Reading – who is on the run – was also found guilty of defrauding Mr Couling and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.

Leather bowed his head as the Recorder, Ian Darling, told him: “It was, in my judgment, a well-organised and cynical crime, no doubt motivated by greed.

“Once the money had been removed it went straight to the Ferguson Bricknell client account, of which you were a long-standing and trusted partner.

“It took on an appearance of legitimacy, which would stay with it whenever and wherever it went.

“I regard this as an extremely serious crime. You were party to theft of over £1.5m, a significant amount on any view.

“You were a professional man using your professional position. You were an integral and significant part of this conspiracy. You were dishonest through and through.

“By virtue of this conviction, your professional life has been shattered.

“Your family life has been devastated.”

As Leather, of Lewis Close, was led from the dock he turned to wave at his wife, who was sobbing in the public gallery.

James Dawes, prosecuting, said: “Mark Couling is a man with a very large bank balance, a rich man.”

Leather was enlisted to make the crime look like a normal property deal, the court heard.

Mr Dawes said: “Such a firm is likely to be dealing with large sums of money – £1.5m in relation to property is not an unusual sum.”

Taking advantage of the limited banking hours over Christmas, the plot, prepared over six months, was put into action on December 15, 2007.

Fan was at work that day and the CCTV at his office was switched off.

An ID thief with a fake passport in Mr Couling’s name walked straight up to Fan and asked him to do a transfer of £1.5m. Fan changed the telephone number on the Couling account, so later when the bank rang him to check the instruction was genuine, they were talking to a criminal.

Leather forwarded a letter asking for the money to be sent to his firm from Mr Couling’s Barclays branch at Moorgate, in the City of London, to a NatWest Bank account.

Three days later the solicitor transferred the money out of the account, jurors heard. But bank staff became suspicious and stopped alleged attempts to withdraw the money, leading to the plot being uncovered.

Father-of-four Leather, who has been a solicitor for 25 years, claimed during the trial that another fraudster had posed as him.

He had denied a charge of conspiracy to defraud between June 1, 2007, and January 5 last year.

Fan, who was tried in his absence, denied the same charge. Fan also denied 20 charges of possessing articles for fraud but was found guilty of 19 offences.