Steven Anderson has won his spot in the Dodgy Solicitor top trumps by claiming legal aid for advising a man who wanted to sue Take That and Pink Floyd for stealing his face.
Anderson, a Glasgow lawyer, earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from fraudulent legal aid applications. Investigators discovered he routinely made multiple applications for work he'd already done, billed for work he never carried out and inflated fees. In 2008/9 alone he earned more than £560k in legal aid from his scams.
No job was too small or undeserving for Anderson. In 2004 he advised a client who believed Take That and Pink Floyd had stolen photos of his face and used it on video tapes. The man was later detained under mental health legislation, but not before Anderson claimed and received £78.45 for advising him on possible breaches of his human rights. It's not clear how the Scottish Legal Aid Board failed to spot that it was paying out shedloads of cash for nonsense.
Anderson has now been struck off for what the chairman of the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal called "reprehensible" and "persistent abuse" of the legal aid fund. And yet the newest Dodgy Solicitor is a shining examplar of the profession compared to the rest of his firm: Anderson's former partner, James McIntyre, recently finished three years in prison for storing guns on behalf of the notorious McGovern crime family.
If you've stumbled across a Dodgy Solicitor, write in to the usual place.
Tip Off ROF
Anderson, a Glasgow lawyer, earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from fraudulent legal aid applications. Investigators discovered he routinely made multiple applications for work he'd already done, billed for work he never carried out and inflated fees. In 2008/9 alone he earned more than £560k in legal aid from his scams.
No job was too small or undeserving for Anderson. In 2004 he advised a client who believed Take That and Pink Floyd had stolen photos of his face and used it on video tapes. The man was later detained under mental health legislation, but not before Anderson claimed and received £78.45 for advising him on possible breaches of his human rights. It's not clear how the Scottish Legal Aid Board failed to spot that it was paying out shedloads of cash for nonsense.
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Not pictured: Anderson meeting a client |
Anderson has now been struck off for what the chairman of the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal called "reprehensible" and "persistent abuse" of the legal aid fund. And yet the newest Dodgy Solicitor is a shining examplar of the profession compared to the rest of his firm: Anderson's former partner, James McIntyre, recently finished three years in prison for storing guns on behalf of the notorious McGovern crime family.
If you've stumbled across a Dodgy Solicitor, write in to the usual place.