A LEGAL professional who used his position to steal nearly £160,000 from clients publicly apologised to his victims as he was imprisoned for two years.
Geoffrey Black, 62, of Grant Avenue, Wavertree, was described as a “thoroughly dishonest man� by His Honour Judge Swift in Liverpool Crown Court, as he was sentenced on ten counts of theft and one of fraud.
In court the defendant also asked for 28 similar offences to be taken into account.
The court heard Black was struck off as a solicitor and imprisoned for similar offences in 1984, and had returned to the profession after a long absence in 2000, working as a conveyancing clerk for Bell Lamb & Joynson earning £42,000 a year.
His crimes were uncovered in December 2006 when a client noticed that shares from a late relative’s estate worth nearly £5,000 had been transferred into an account in the names of two executors of the will. Police found those signatures to be false and the money was traced to a building society account in Black’s name.
The money was spend on holidays, gifts, and paying off debts, the court heard.
Black had pleaded guilty to all charges in a previous hearing at Liverpool Magistrates Court on July 16 this year.
He has since declared himself bankrupt and will lose the house he shares with his daughter. He had battled depression and had attempted suicide when he realised he had been found out. Black put nearly £14,500 back into some of the accounts and was helped to return a further £5,000.
Nigel Power, defending, said Black was “acutely embarrassed� about what he had done.
He said: “The defendent has asked for me to apologise, not just to the estates and those involved with them, but to his employees, who to some extent took a chance on him.
“The defendant keenly feels there are a number of people he has let down and wishes to publicly apologise for that.�
Following his release from jail following his offences in 1984, Black had run his own takeaway and worked for the civil service before returning to the legal profession.
“When the defendent started offending he thought he would be found out almost straight away, but he wasn’t found out, so it continued,� said Mr Power.
Black was sentenced to two years for each charge, to run concurrently.
His Honour Judge Swift told Black: “You were employed in a position of trust and you abused that trust. You are described in your pre-sentence report as a sophisticated offender who was systematically dishonest over a long period of time.
“You are a thoroughly dishonest man.�