Solicitor Jailed for Taking Money From Clients

Tue, 09 Feb 2010

A solicitor has been jailed for three years after admitting to stealing more than £480,000 from his clients. Alan George Nurse from Ardnavalley Park, Comber, was found guilty of theft, forgery and false accounting from 1997 to 2002. The 63 year old pleaded guilty to taking money he wasn’t entitled to for work done on behalf of clients, ramping up legal costs and even forging documents. In one case, he forged a document claiming he was entitled to £17,000 from the sale of a property . Nurse pleaded guilty to 12 other similar charges.

The Law Society first examined Nurse’s books in 2002, after his book-keeper alerted them to suspicious irregularities. They seized control of the practice in October 2002, before referring the matter to the police in 2003. The judge justified the lengthy delay in bringing the case to court on account of the case’s complexity, and the need to establish the full amount the lawyer had falsely received.

Nurse was a partner at one of Northern Ireland’s largest law firm, Nurse and Jones. He has since paid back all of the money, and an additional £100,000, through the sale of his home and legal firm .
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