Meet Peter Taylor, the latest lawyer to join the bandits and chancers who make up the deck of RollOnFriday's Dodgy Solicitors.

56-year-old Taylor, a partner at Holborn-based Ellis Taylor Law, ran into difficulties last year after falling head over heels for a female client. 30-year-old enterpreneur Louisa Dewar told Taylor she was heavily in debt and being threatened by bailliffs, so Taylor responded by writing a letter of advice and going home to his wife lending her £40,000 of his own money.

After draining his own funds, Taylor moved onto the firms' client account. He transferred £1,000 to Dewar's mortgage broker, then £15,000 to her company, Dewar Diamonds, and finally £117,550 to himself. He was found nearly two weeks later after his wife reported him missing, alone in a Kensington hotel with only £20,000 left. Taylor told police he had given the rest to Dewar.



During his trial at the Old Bailey Taylor said that their relationship never became sexual, although in her summing up Judge Wendy Joseph said Taylor was "infatuated, indeed obsessed" with Dewar. In terms sure to be repeated by sweaty middle-aged lawyers caught with their pants down everywhere, she said he was "deeply vulnerable" to the younger woman's "manipulative and dishonest" charms.

Taylor was jailed for 20 months for the fraud, which forced his firm to close and got him nothing but friendzoned.
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Comments

Anonymous 09 May 14 09:40

Idiot 56 year old lawyer falls for attractive (but heavily indebted) 30 year old entrepreneur. Predictable.

Idiot 56 year old lawyer lends money to same 30 year old entrepreneur. Gullible.

Idiot 56 year old lawyer steals money from clients to give to same 30 year old entrepreneur. Criminal.

Manipulative. Gullible. Granted. But if the defence 'I only did it to impress the girl' were valid, we would not have much of a justice system in this country!

Anonymous 09 May 14 13:25

Must admit when I read the judge's comments I had a laugh. Not as vulnerable as his poor old partner/s I guess, left to pick up the pieces.The profession is well rid of him.