Solicitor jailed over £269k swindle

A solicitor who swindled more than £269,000 from his own aunt after being put in charge of her finances has been jailed.

William Walls was the sole partner in Mcquittys law firm in Cupar when he was given power of attorney over the bank accounts of his elderly aunt, Mary Brown.

But with his business in financial peril, Walls began plundering her bank accounts to keep the firm – which spe- cialised in property and estate agency – afloat for a period of almost nine years.

Walls’s scheme was discovered following a Law Society inquiry into his business and questions raised by his family about withdrawals from Mrs Brown’s accounts.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard that, in some instances, Walls had been found to walk into a TSB branch in Cupar to withdraw cash from her accounts before walking the money 100 yards down the street to his own RBS branch to deposit it.

Walls – who gave up his practice in 2013 after being suspended by the Law Society – was formally thrown out of the profession at a hearing last month.

Walls, 62, of Muir Gardens, St Andrews, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of embezzlement committed between 7 December, 2004, and 10 October, 2013.

Sheriff Alastair Brown jailed Walls for eight months.

The sentence was reduced from a year in recognition of his early guilty plea.