A Florida lawyer has been jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to conning clients and friends out of over $1 million.

Three months after being disbarred for making an inappropriate disbursement from his firm's client account, Scott Rovenger handed himself in at the county jail. The personal injury attorney confessed to police officers that he had actually been forging cheques and stealing settlements from clients for over 20 years. He said he was now "totally broke."



The court heard how Rovenger, in one particularly heartless scam, pissed away almost all of a $100,000 wrongful death settlement intended for three young children of a friend who was killed in a car crash. Rovenger has been told that he could face a further 22 years inside if he fails to cooperate with his many victims' efforts to recover their cash. Not that getting anything back is likely. Rovenger says he has already spent it all "for some gambling, for some addictions I had, for some living expenses too."

Meanwhile, last week's dodgy judge Heather Perrin will be cooling her gavel in the slammer having been sent down for two and a half years following her conviction for deception this week.