Cheating lawyer fined £10,000

But Paul Kirk will not face prosecution for legal aid overcharging

News, 11 October 2007

A lawyer has been fined £10,000 by the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal for cheating the legal aid system.

Lanarkshire solicitor Paul Kirk, 48, was reported to the police, but will not face prosecution. An analysis of his timesheets revealed that he had double charged for work he did and submitted accounts seeking excessive payments. It is estimated that in this way he was able to claim £35,000 to which he was not entitled.

Suspicions were raised over Mr Kirk's high earnings of over £300,000 a year since he started his own practice in 2002. It was found that in one case, he had charged for a meeting with clients when he was actually in talks with the Scottish Legal Aid Board's auditors.

After being threatened with removal from the legal aid register, Mr Kirk claimed there had been a mistake because he wasn't good with administration, but the excessive claims continued. His case was reported by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) to the Law Society of Scotland, which brought the tribunal prosecution.

Giving judgment yesterday, the Discipline Tribunal said it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Kirk had acted dishonestly. It was unable to impose its highest sanction of striking the lawyer off, because Mr Kirk has already resigned. The £10,000 fine imposed was the highest available to it. The tribunal repeated an earlier call for a change in the law that would stop lawyers from removing their names from the roll when disciplinary proceedings were pending.

A spokesperson for SLAB said it had received repayment from him and there would be no loss to the public purse.

Crown Office said that after careful consideration of the facts and circumstances, it had concluded that there should be no public prosecution.