Greedy solicitor who stole £4m from dead clients and church is jailed for 7 years
A GREEDY lawyer who stole more than £4million from clients and the Church of England was jailed for seven years yesterday.
Linda Box, 67, raided the accounts of deceased clients to fund her lavish lifestyle while she was a senior partner at Dixon, Coles and Gill in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
She also used her role as registrar with the Diocese of Wakefield to steal £63,000 Church of England cash from the Bishop’s Fund, a court heard.
Box, who admitted fraud, forgery and theft, gained £4,055,329 from the deception, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Nadim Bashir, prosecuting, said Box used the cash to fund her “obsession” for clothes, holidays and £800-a-night stays at The Ritz Hotel in London. She also bought £800,000 worth of vintage wines for her son.
The lawyer had used stolen cash for mortgage redemptions for relatives, private school fees for her grandchild and landscaping work.
Box, from Dewsbury, stole the money by forging signatures on probate documents and to access a trust fund. Police launched a fraud probe when a colleague noticed £5,000 was missing.
As a result of her actions, the solicitors’ firm was shut last January and staff made redundant.
Detective Inspector Dan Tillett, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “She preyed on vulnerable people at one of the most difficult times of their lives.”