Having been found guilty of numerous fraud offences, former solicitor Ian Macfarlane has been ordered to pay £18,000 of court fees and has been jailed for a second time.
During an 11-day trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, the conveyancing specialist denied six charges but was convicted of five. He was jailed for five years.
The 56-year-old was previously a partner at Blandford based firm, Traill & Co. He was however in 2006, struck off by the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) after he was jailed for the first time.
The court heard that Macfarlane identified freeholds of properties where the freeholder had been missing or absent, according to a statement from Dorset Police. He would then order the transfer of properties into his company’s name – Kingston Property Management or different fabricated names – by falsifying documents to the Land Registry. When control of the freeholds had been obtained, Macfarlane had been able to offer leases extensions, demand ground rent as well as sell the freeholds to leaseholders.
Had he been successful, he stood to gain over £200,000, the court heard.
Macfarlane was jailed this month.
He had previously been jailed in 2005 for a period of three years and nine months after being found to have siphoned funds off from his former employees; over £2,000 per week, reaching around £825,000 in total. Under bogus account names including ‘Ian Godfrey Revue’ and ‘I Revue’, Macfarlane took the stamp duty of clients, as opposed to sending it to the Inland Revenue.
Speaking after the most recent sentencing, Dorset Police detective sergeant commented on the cases’ complex nature: “The case started in 2011 and involved a complicated and extensive investigation into the possession of a number of properties.
“I hope this sentence shows that we take allegations of fraud extremely seriously and will bring offenders to justice.”
