14 years in jail for lawyer

A LAWYER found guilty of stealing £20m of client money to fund his taste for the finer things in life has been jailed for 14 years.

Timothy Schools, 61, an investment manager from Cumbria, ran a Ponzi-type scheme. He was prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office at Southwark Crown Court. His law firm in Preston, which he brazenly called ATM Solicitors, was touted as his ‘personal cash machine’.

He denied the claims but a jury found him guilty on five counts of fraudulent trading, money laundering and fraud by abuse of position. The judge said Schools was guilty of ‘egregious and persistent crime’.