Former solicitor jailed for defrauding clients of almost £2m

A former solicitor who defrauded clients at his firm of almost £2 million has been jailed.

Hugh Lansdell, 74, was today (22 September 2023) sentenced to four years imprisonment at Norwich Crown Court for committing fraud by abuse of position over almost a two-year period.

At the time of his offending, Lansdell was a senior partner at the firm he worked for, and his professional responsibilities included looking after client money and estates.In April 2015 Lansdell, of Norfolk, was led to believe he had won a postcode lottery in Spain and that in order to release the funds promised to him, he would need to make ever increasing demands for payments. This was a scam.

After exhausting his and his wife’s money to make payments to the lottery scheme, Lansdell began taking money from the accounts of clients at his firm.

Between 21 August 2015 and 26 July 2017, Lansdell, was responsible for making 72 transactions out of client accounts, worth a total value of £1,963,659.44. This affected 29 client accounts, six payments were also made from investment portfolios held by Trusts in his control, and further payments made from personal bank accounts of clients where he had Lasting Power of Attorney.

When concerns were first raised by the firm, Lansdell lied and made numerous excuses about investing the clients’ money elsewhere, before finally admitting he was using the money for a lottery scheme.

Following an investigation by Norfolk Police, the CPS authorised the charge against Lansdell which he pleaded guilty to.

Emma Beazley, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS, said: “After falling victim to a scam himself, Hugh Lansdell exploited his significant position of trust as a senior partner to take an extraordinary amount of money from clients.

“The CPS is committed to working with police to bring fraudulent offenders to justice and will be pursuing confiscation proceedings in this case.”