Heavy fine for law firm over its link to care trusts adviser
A LAW firm that teamed up with a rip-off bunch of unqualified legal advisers has been heavily fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, with one of its bosses suspended for six months.
Brown Turner Ross, which has offices in Liverpool and nearby Southport, worked with Goldstar Law Limited. Despite its name, Goldstar had no legally qualified staff, but it told clients it could set up trusts that would shelter property and savings if a client had to go into care.
Not surprisingly, sidestepping care home fees and dumping charges on to the local council is not that easy. I warned in 2014 that Brown Turner Ross took its instructions from Goldstar and not from Goldstar’s customers and that it stood back from any false claims that were made.
I revealed that Goldstar, based in Newark in Nottinghamshire, was run by father and son Alan and Matthew Appleyard, who were linked to a similar company, Legal Assistance, that was wound up by the High Court in 2011 after an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
In 2015, the Appleyards were both jailed for four years after a court heard that Goldstar had raked in half a million pounds from customers who were fraudulently assured they were dealing with legal experts.
Goldstar drummed up business with false claims and then relied on genuine solicitors Brown Turner Ross to do the paperwork.
The solicitors were not responsible for the false sales pitch, but the watchdog found that the firm sent trust deeds straight to Goldstar’s customers, who may have thought that Brown Turner Ross was acting in their interests rather than those of Goldstar. The solicitors failed to check that the deeds would match the sales pitch and the watchdog judged that they risked ‘potentially serious harm to the reputation of the profession.’
Brown Turner Ross and solicitor David Bushell have each been fined £25,000 and solicitor Kevin Ross has been suspended from the profession for six months. The two men and their firm were also ordered to pay a total of £40,000 in costs.