Wilson: 26-month jail sentence
Two women who were separately convicted of theft from the law firms where they worked have been banned from the profession.
Both have been made subject to orders under section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974, meaning they cannot work for a law firm without the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s approval.
The SRA said yesterday that Rachel Wilson began working as a legal cashier and administrator at E Rex Makin & Co, later Liverpool Legal Services Ltd, in 2008.
In August 2024, by which point she was chief cashier, Ms Wilson was on annual leave and the staff member covering for her found irregularities with payments from the firm’s office account.
“Ms Wilson had recorded payments made to consultants used by the firm, but the money, amounting to approximately £13,500, had been paid to bank accounts in Ms Wilson’s name instead,” the SRA recorded.
“The firm carried out further investigation which revealed that Ms Wilson had transferred a total of approximately £200,000 from the firm’s office account to her bank accounts over a four-year period from 1 April 2020 to 12 August 2024.”
She admitted stealing the money and was dismissed for gross misconduct and reported to the police.
Following her guilty plea, Ms Wilson was convicted last June at Liverpool Crown Court of fraud by abuse of position and sentenced to 26 months in prison.
According to a local newspaper report, Ms Wilson said she stole the money to pay for her husband’s drug habit.
The Liverpool Echo quoted Mr Recorder Ainsworth saying: “The family home was plainly an uncomfortable place to live. It is clear that you were taking this money not for high living or anything of that nature. You were faced with a difficult situation and sought to deal with it in this dishonest way.
“A distinction must be drawn with somebody taking this money to buy expensive designer clothes, go on holiday or buy expensive cars. You were using the money in different circumstances to try to alleviate the pressure on you, and I bear that in mind.”
Meanwhile, last March Aminata Pungi was also convicted of fraud by abuse of position. She had been a legal secretary in the London office of US law firm Latham & Watkins and made unauthorised transfers from the personal bank accounts of a partner she was working for into her own accounts.
A local media report said that – despite previous convictions for shoplifting – Mr Recorder Campbell sentenced her to 18 months in jail, suspended for 18 months, in light of her then pregnancy and difficult upbringing after fleeing war in her native Democratic Republic of Congo.
The judge was quoted as saying: “The greatest punishment you have is you are unable to pursue your dream career in the law.”
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