A dodgy solicitor has been struck off after charging £750 an hour to attend a client's funeral.
Philip Crowe's practice was in York, but his rate was strictly City. In 2000 he was instructed by a client, named at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal as Mr HHL, to prepare a will, which appointed him as an executor and trustee. When HHL died, Crowe organised the distribution of £3,000 from the estate to eleven charities. Work for which he charged a punchy £71,646.
Crowe also billed the estate for attending HHL's funeral, and helped himself to a loan from the estate of £121,950 to pay off his personal debts (secured by a charge over his office premises). But Crowe denied that he had been dishonest or inflated his costs, saying that HHL had requested that he be "very well paid". Apparently the lawyer had actually "fought off the desires" of the "very determined old man" to leave everything to Crowe and his fellow trustee. Crowe also said that he deserved to be paid for attending the funeral, and that the other problems arose because he was "incompetent with paperwork".
A costs lawyer told the tribual that Crowe had overcharged so much that he was being paid the equivalent of £750 an hour. Concluding that Crowe had padded his bill by £51,000, the tribunal ruled that Crowe's loan from his dead client breached SRA accounting rules. It said that he had acted "without integrity", and ordered that the 79-year-old be struck off.
Crowe will submit his invoice for attending the tribunal shortly.
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Philip Crowe's practice was in York, but his rate was strictly City. In 2000 he was instructed by a client, named at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal as Mr HHL, to prepare a will, which appointed him as an executor and trustee. When HHL died, Crowe organised the distribution of £3,000 from the estate to eleven charities. Work for which he charged a punchy £71,646.
Crowe also billed the estate for attending HHL's funeral, and helped himself to a loan from the estate of £121,950 to pay off his personal debts (secured by a charge over his office premises). But Crowe denied that he had been dishonest or inflated his costs, saying that HHL had requested that he be "very well paid". Apparently the lawyer had actually "fought off the desires" of the "very determined old man" to leave everything to Crowe and his fellow trustee. Crowe also said that he deserved to be paid for attending the funeral, and that the other problems arose because he was "incompetent with paperwork".
A costs lawyer told the tribual that Crowe had overcharged so much that he was being paid the equivalent of £750 an hour. Concluding that Crowe had padded his bill by £51,000, the tribunal ruled that Crowe's loan from his dead client breached SRA accounting rules. It said that he had acted "without integrity", and ordered that the 79-year-old be struck off.
Crowe will submit his invoice for attending the tribunal shortly.
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Comments
102
87
I can only say to Philip Crowe good riddance.
84
77
Why on earth is he still practising at 79? They make your full driving licence expire at 70 because your judgment can become shaky at that age. Time for a mini-LPC exam for superannuated solicitors?