Southwark Crown Court, London. Picture date: Monday June 21, 2021.
(Picture: PA Archive)A corrupt solicitor who pocketed almost £20million of investors’ money was jailed for 14 years at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
Timothy Schools, 61, used the £19.6million he took to fund a luxury lifestyle, including a motor boat, luxury cars and a £5million fishing and shooting estate in the Lake District.
Southwark Crown Court heard on Thursday that he funnelled the funds to himself while acting as the investment manager for the Cayman Island-based Axiom Legal Financing Fund. He set the enterprise up in 2009 to provide loans to law firms pursuing no-win, no-fee cases.
Earlier this week, Schools, of Penrith, Cumbria, was found guilty on five counts, including fraudulent trading, fraud by abuse of position, and money laundering.
Judge Martin Beddoe branded Schools an "utterly dishonest man".
He said: "As the case has unfolded I have no doubt, I am sure that you always saw this as a get rich quick scheme."
Around 500 investors lost more than £100million while some 35,000 clients' had their cases affected, according to the serious fraud office - the Government department that investigates and prosecutes serious or complex fraud.
It said investors were told their loans would be given to a panel of high quality law firms to fund legal cases with good chances of success, but most of the funds, amounting to £40million, were paid to just three law firms - ATM, Ashton Fox and Bracewell's - all of which Schools either owned or held undisclosed interest in.
He used funds received by ATM Solicitors to pay himself over £1million in salary, consultancy fees and other personal benefits, the fraud office said.
Investigators said monies were also transferred and hidden in offshore bank accounts held within complex overseas trusts.
The cases Axiom funded were not independently vetted, often failed at court and case insurance policies failed to pay out when cases did not succeed.
It explained Schools covered up these failures by arranging for the repayments of old loans with new Axiom loans, giving the false impression to directors, administrators and auditors that law firms were successfully repaying their loans and achieving returns on investment.
In addition to the prison sentence, Schools was also disqualified from being a director of a company for 15 years.
He was previously sanctioned by his professional body and struck off the solicitor's register, the court heard.
The jury acquitted a second defendant, Richard Emmett, 49, of Grimsargh, Lancashire, on all charges and were unable to reach a verdict on a single count of fraudulent trading against David Kennedy, 69, of Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear.
The court heard Schools settled civil action in the High Court but the terms are not known.
Lisa Osofsky, director of the fraud office, said: "Mr Schools deliberately abused his position of trust to enrich himself. Through a complex web of lies, he attempted to hide his fraudulent activity, while spending other people's hard earned money."
