DISHONEST SOLICITOR.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18407, 14 August 1931, Page 7

DISHONEST SOLICITOR.

CLIENTS ROBBED. FOUR YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. FEMALE CLERK ALSO CONVICTED. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. SYDNEY. August 13. A Sydney solicitor. William Clegg, and Mrs Leila Smith, his clerk, who were indicted on many charges of fraud and misrepresentation, were convicted at Quarter Sessions, after a prolonged trial. The woman was recommended to mercy. Both were remanded for sentence. Clegg was later sentenced to imprisonment for four years, and Mrs Smith was released on bond to be of good behaviour for three years. The Judge said it was quite obvious that Mrs Smith came under the control and Influence of Clegg, whose defalcations, according -to the police, amounted to £200,000. About three months ago detectives arrested William Carnegie Clegg, aged 50, and his clerk, Mrs Leila Beryl Smith, aged 37, on charges of misappropriation of clients’ money. The police produced a list of clients who claimed that they had been defrauded of sums ranging from £2OO to £llOO. Mrs Smith was charged with aiding and abetting Clegg in each instance. Detectives stated that a number of clients’ mortgages did not exist, and that while several mortgages had been discharged and the money had been paid into Clegg’s office it had never been accounted for. Mrs Smith, who carried out most of the conveyancing told Hie detectives that everything was legitimate so far as she was aware.