An Aberdeen solicitor convicted of embezzling £120,000 from a 90-year-old woman with dementia has been jailed.
John Sinclair, a former partner at James and George Collie Solicitors in Aberdeen, was found guilty last month of siphoning off huge sums of money from bank accounts belonging to former university lecturer Dr Doreen Milne.
Today, his actions were repeatedly described by Sheriff Morag McLaughlin as a “significant breach of trust” as a solicitor and as the woman’s friend.
The 69-year-old lawyer had been granted power of attorney over the retired doctor’s finances, following her dementia diagnosis in 2014.
But instead of diligently managing Dr Milne’s savings, Sinclair drained her account while she was in the care of a nursing home in order to enrich himself and pay off outstanding tax debts.
A trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how Sinclair repeatedly deleted computer entries in order to cover his tracks.
A jury of nine women and five men took less than two hours to convict Sinclair on both charges.
Jailing the former solicitor today, Sheriff McLaughlin criticised Sinclair’s actions against Dr Milne as “a significant breach of trust and of his professional responsibility”.
The sheriff added: “This woman was infirm and not able to understand what was happening.
“She entrusted you with her finances and her estate. She asked you to do this as her solicitor and her friend and you abused that position.
“You then lied about these matters to your firm and the authorities – this is such a breach of trust by a solicitor.
“It gives me no pleasure to find that there is no disposal other than a custodial sentence.”
‘A web of lies’
During the trial, fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar showed jurors bank statements belonging to Sinclair from 2011 to 2012 and 2016 to 2017, which revealed he was often cash-poor.
Ms MacVicar claimed this – alongside Sinclair owing £66,000 to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – painted a picture of a man “up to his eyes in debt”.
Asked how he used the £120,000, Sinclair said he had used it as an agreed “loan” which he intended to repay at 5% above the base rate of interest.
He added that, due to the power of attorney, how he used the money was “up to me” and that he “treated it as an investment in me”.
Ms MacVicar also put it to Sinclair had been “entrusted” with the 90-year-old’s money but had used it to “pay his own debts and not in any way to benefit Dr Milne”.
She also said he then “concocted and fabricated” a handwritten agreement after he had been “caught out” by colleagues.
Accusing the solicitor of using Dr Milne’s savings “like he was the bank of John Sinclair”, she added: “John Sinclair had embroiled himself in a web of lies.
“The handwritten document was an afterthought and a self-serving mechanism to cover his own back.”
Sinclair is also accused of repeatedly deleting computer entries in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.
It’s claimed that Sinclair approached a work colleague and asked him how to permanently delete an “event log” from his firm’s computer system.
Sinclair’s defence solicitor Ian Duguid KC stated during mitigation that Sinclair “has been a practicing lawyer and solicitor for 42 years and these events brought an end to his career entirely”.
He added: “This has had a catastrophic effect on the career of an individual whose means of subsistence has disappeared almost overnight in the period following all this.
“He accepts he has been found guilty by the court of these offences but what I would would ask is that the court extend such leniency as is appropriate.”
Alison McKenzie, procurator fiscal for Aberdeen, described Sinclair’s actions as “a brazen and egregious betrayal of trust by a lawyer who took advantage of his position to embezzle money from an elderly lady who had dementia”.
“John Sinclair carried out a calculated and heartless deception on someone who was mentally incapacitated, ” she added.
“This conviction shows that prosecutors will seek to secure convictions without fear or favour to expose criminality by those who work in the justice system.”
Sheriff McLaughlin told Sinclair: “I consider that a custodial sentence is important to show society’s displeasure for your actions.”
She jailed Sinclair, of Murtle Den Road in Aberdeen, for two years.
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