£500,000 STOLEN

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 33, 8 August 1933, Page 7

£500,000 STOLEN

DISHONEST SOLICITORS

NEW SOUTH WALES'S RECORD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, August 3. Two more solicitors appeared before the Full Court of New South Wales this week to answer charges of dishonesty brought against them by the Law Society. Another solicitor was struck off the roll last Friday for dishonesty. The record of solicitors in New South Wales is indeed a sorry one. It is stated that during the past twenty-five years 200 solicitors have been struck; off the roll for having misappropriated' the money of their clients, and that the total amount involved is £500,000, In tho circumstances it is not surprising that tho Government has' at last been spurred to action. A Bill is now being prepared under which every solicitor practising will havo to contribute to a guarantee fund of £100,000 for the protection of the public An annual levy will be struck. _ A year ago the theii president of the Incorporated Law Institute, addressing the annual meeting of that body, emphasised that trust money stolen by solicitors during the year ended June 30, 1932, exceeded all previous misappropriations. Solicitors generally regard tho defalcations as a Mot on tho profession, but they declare that they are powerless to remedy tho evil. For that reason they have been urging,the Government to take action, and for some reason or other sueeessivo Governments have been . slow to move. Maybe the reason is that such legislation would not be likely to attract many votes at election time, but the frauds have been of such a. gigantic nature that it is impossible to excuse the delay. Last year and the preceding year were black years for the profession. The misappropriations were large and frequent. A notable case was that of William Carnegie Clogg, who robbed countless clients of huge sums of money (luring a time he was held in the highest respect in the community. Ho was sent to gaol and later declared a bankrupt. During the bankruptcy proceedings it was stated that misappropriations by solicitors over a few years had run into £200,000. A conservative estimate of the misappropriations during 1931 and 1932 was about £300,000. During tho last eight or ten years solicitors have been struck off the roll at the rate of eight a year. In tho light of what has happened it is unlikely that, the Government will overlook tho need for an independent audit of the trust accounts of all solicitors). ■