Solicitor with links to firms behind failed flats scheme faces regulator prosecution
A SOLICITOR connected to firms behind a failed Runcorn flats scheme is to be prosecuted by his industry regulator.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority published an announcement on Monday, January 6, of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s intention to prosecute Timothy Peter Ackrel.
A bulletin on the SRA’s website said that the SDT has decided that Ackrel has a case to answer ‘in respect of allegations which are or include that, while in practice as an in-house solicitor at EPG, ALD and/or DS7’.
It is alleged that between November 2013 and June 2016 while acting on behalf of EPG, ALD and-or DS7, in real estate development schemes, Ackrel: facilitated payments of investor funds to third parties, without apparent justification, acted when he knew or should have known that the projects were ‘unsustainable’ and incoming investments were at risk.
Ackrel is also accused of drafting, executing and-or registering legal charges – a kind of loan or financing arrangement – against six developments when he could ‘not have had any reasonable belief in the validity of the liabilities said by the charges to have been outstanding’.
The SRA said it is alleged that the schemes ‘bore the hallmarks of dubious transactions’ and that Ackrel ‘facilitated improper money movements’ with ‘indicators of possible money laundering’.
DS7 Ltd was the organisation that under the disputed legal agreements was owed cash by now-defunct developer Absolute
Living Developments (ALD), which left a trail of furious investors over doomed property projects including a controversial application to convert East Lane House in Runcorn into 448 flats.
Ackrel was a director at DS7 Ltd until he resigned in October 2015.
East Lane House has been under unconnected ownership since late 2016.