Solicitor in legal aid scam back in business
A SOLICITOR struck off after using public money to keep a legal firm afloat has launched a claims company. Cameron Fyfe was found guilty of breaching strict rules governing how lawyers are supposed to handle money meant for third parties.
His name was removed from the solicitors’ roll last year after he was found guilty of professional misconduct.
Mr Fyfe, who acted for the woman raped by footballers David Goodwillie and David Robertson, later saw a bid to overturn the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal’s (SSDT) ruling rejected at the Court of Session.
But it has emerged that Mr Fyfe has set up Cameron Fyfe Claims – offering to seek compensation for accidents, historical abuse and medical negligence.
Describing himself as ‘one of Scotland’s most prominent lawyers’, Mr Fyfe tells prospective clients he ‘is regarded as Scotland’s expert lawyer in cases of historical sexual or physical abuse’.
His website makes no mention of being struck off. He was found guilty of a ‘wrongful and improper use of clients’ funds’ after routinely withholding legal aid for services including secretarial support, expert witness consultancies and medical expertise.
The tribunal also heard funds assigned to a case by the Scottish Legal Aid Board lay in ‘a drawer’ – law firm Ross Harper’s bank account – for up to two years, helping it balance its books after the 2008 financial crash.
Ross Harper’s Alan Susskind was also found guilty by the tribunal and struck off.
The Law Society of Scotland said Mr Fyfe is not breaking any rules but advised the public against seeking the services of ‘an unregulated lawyer’.
A spokesman said: ‘It is an offence to hold yourself out as a practising Scottish solicitor if you are not a qualified, regulated member of the Law Society of Scotland.
‘However it’s open to anyone to call themselves a lawyer. This has been a matter of concern to us for some time.
‘We have raised this as part of the current independent legal services review.’
Mr Fyfe represented Denise Clair, 30, who waived her right to anonymity to sue Goodwillie and Robertson in the first civil case of its kind in Scotland.
Miss Clair, a mother of one, took the unprecedented step after the Crown Office decided not to prosecute the pair, claiming there was insufficient evidence.
She was vindicated when a judge at the Court of Session ruled in January that they had raped her and awarded her £100,000.
When asked if he was disclosing the fact he had been struck off to clients of his business, Mr Fyfe said: ‘It just means I can’t describe myself as a solicitor. I think what happened was well publicised so most people already know.’