Law Society to review procedure after seven month wait in reporting "alleged irregularities" in MP property deals

The Law Society will review how it refers information to the Crown Office following the confirmation it took seven months to formally submit its full report on “alleged irregularities relating to property deals” which saw MP Michelle Thomson’s solicitor struck off for professional misconduct.

While seven months passed between the Law Society raising the issue “informally” in December 2014 and sending its full report on 3 July 2015, it took just six days for the Crown to then instruct Police Scotland to investigate, after it received the Law Society’s report.

Thomson’s solicitor, Chris Hales, was struck off by the Law Society after a ruling by the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal in May 2014 – a year before Thomson became MP for Edinburgh West – after being found guilty of professional misconduct in carrying out property deals on behalf of Thomson and her business partner.

RELATED CONTENT

Crown sparked police investigation into MP's property deals within six days of receiving report

Michelle Thomson withdraws from SNP frontbench for course of Police Scotland investigation

The Society said the case “presented us with an unusual set of circumstances” but that it would “work with the SSDT and the Crown Office in particular to improve how information of this nature can be shared more quickly if and when required”.

MP Michelle Thomson last night withdrew from the party whip and was automatically suspended from the SNP after Police Scotland confirmed it has launched an investigation into “alleged irregularities relating to property deals”. She now sits as an independent.

In response to why the Law Society took until December 2014 to raise this with the Crown Office, Lorna Jack, Chief Executive of the Law Society said: “We took action against Christopher Hales to protect the public by prosecuting him before the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal, who struck him off as a solicitor. Mr Hales was suspended from practising as a solicitor by the Law Society in 2011 prior to his case going before the SSDT. Our priority was to ensure that he could not practice while investigations into any breach of Law Society accounts rules were ongoing.

“The case itself presented us with an unusual set of circumstances - it is rare for a misconduct case against a solicitor to have to be taken further following tribunal proceedings.

“When it became apparent to us that there were concerns about the risk of mortgage fraud following publication of the SSDT’s report, which stated that Mr Hales had breached several Council of Mortgage Lender requirements, we reported this to the Crown Office.

“Currently the Law Society’s Guarantee Fund Sub-Committee decides if SSDT findings should be formally reported to the authorities. The committee comprises both solicitors and non-solicitors.

“We acknowledge that there was an internal delay in the report reaching the committee, this was due to staff workloads, however there was no delay once the committee had made its decision to report the matter to the Crown Office.

“We will examine our processes to see if there are any improvements we can make in how we report findings from the SSDT to the Crown Office where there are concerns that there may have been criminal activity. We plan to work with the SSDT and the Crown Office in particular to improve how information of this nature can be shared more quickly if and when required.”