Legal secretary's embezzling brought law firm to grief

28 November 2011

A former will-writer, Leanne Harris, is preparing for jail after admitting she stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from client accounts at Hove law firm Arscotts.

Harris, now 25, joined the firm in 2008 as legal secretary. She has no legal qualifications, although before going to Arscotts she set up a business offering free will-writing services for charities.

Between November 2008 she used Arscotts' cheque  issuing procedures to transfer GBP420,000 from the client account of one Joan Watson. The cheques were made out to a non-existent Mr. Harris.

In a separate fraud unconnected with Arscotts, Harris also stole GBP65,000 from one Miriam Turnbull. She had obtained power of attorney over Mrs Turnbull's affairs through her will-writing business.

Harris has repaid about half of the money she stole, but is still likely to receive a four-year prison sentence. Hove Crown Court will pronounce sentence in January.

Her fraudulent activities helped get her employer Arscotts - a small family firm - into serious difficulties (though the property crash also contributed). The firm had to cease trading because of professional indemnity insurance problems, and 36 staff lost their jobs. It went into liquidation in July this year.

Sources

Brighton Argus

BBC News

Express

Daily Mail

Brighton & Hove News