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04 April 2012 / Kevin Dick
Issue: 7509 / Categories: Features , Fraud , Property
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The housing racket

Kevin Dick follows the fight against conveyancing fraud

A recent story on Mail Online (ìFamily forced out of dream home after lawyers run off with their £400,000 life savings they used to buy property, 19 March 2012) carries a salutary reminder (if any were needed) that the risks facing house buyers can have very heavy consequences.

Requiem for a dream

The article quotes the case of an unsuspecting couple who fell foul to the greed of a highly unscrupulous solicitor in a conveyancing transaction that went spectacularly awry and robbed them of their dream home.
 
Everything seemed to be going well. The transaction was completed and the couple moved into their new home. Six months later, it transpired they owned nothing. The solicitor acting on behalf of the seller (who had also conveniently omitted to disclose the fact that the seller owed the bank huge sums of money) had absconded with the £400,000 the couple had paid for the property, forcing the buyers to vacate their home and leaving them with
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles

Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles

Bell Yard Kysen appoints senior legal PR and ex-government communications adviser, Liz Giles

Clarke Willmott—Lee Edwards

Clarke Willmott—Lee Edwards

Clarke Willmott boosts Southampton commercial property team with addition of partner Lee Edwards

Lime Solicitors—four promotions

Lime Solicitors—four promotions

Lime Solicitors announces four promotions

NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
A polished legal defence may owe more to artificial intelligence than legal merit—and creditors risk paying the price in delay and expense
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Should a conviction stand when a later ruling reveals that the law underpinning it was wrong? The answer exposes a clash between finality and justice
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
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