Lawyer jailed after pilfering $350k
An Auckland lawyer has been jailed for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients during a premeditated and sophisticated scheme over several years.
Bruce Harvey Reid, who preyed on people in poor health, lost a last-gasp legal challenge to stay out of prison. He will spend two years and five months behind bars.
The Weekend Herald can now reveal his criminal offending after the unsuccessful appeal to the High Court. It followed the 68-year-old solicitor’s sentencing in the Auckland District Court after guilty pleas to 15 charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, false accounting and criminal breaches of trust.
The sole-practice lawyer’s fraud was uncovered after a New Zealand Law Society review in 2015.
The review uncovered some concerning transactions for trusts handled by Reid, leading to a more thorough investigation. It identified six clients from whom he had misappropriated $357,831. Victims included a stroke patient, and a trust set up to provide for a dementia patient and the patient’s four children.
Only about $7941 was repaid by Reid during the time he was stealing from his clients. After the discovery of his offending, however, he did pay — with the help of family members or inheritance — $214,645 in reparation.
The balance owed to the victims, $139,743, was then repaid by the Law Society Fidelity Fund.
When sentencing Reid last November, Judge Nevin Dawson said: “The gravity of the offending and the degree of culpability in your offending are both high. There were many transactions across several victims over several years.”
Judge Dawson allowed discounts for health, lack of previous convictions and age, remorse, and efforts to make reparation. He also deducted 13 months for guilty pleas.
Reid was also ordered to pay reparation of about $200,000, $139,743 to the New Zealand Law Society Fidelity Fund and $59,183 to a trust.
On appeal, Reid’s lawyer, Martin Hislop, said Judge Dawson failed to consider the impact of the sentence on Reid’s life partner, the amount of reparation paid and personal mitigating circumstances.
But Justice Susan Thomas accepted Crown lawyer Robin McCoubrey’s argument that Reid had been well aware of the prospect of jail.
Reid earlier was struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal after misappropriating funds.