A STRUCK-OFF Merseyside lawyer was charged with stealing thousands of pounds from clients and his firm.
Martin Davy, 46, allegedly pilfered money from a trust fund set up to handle the compensation for a victim of sexual abuse by the Irish Catholic Church. He is also accused of stealing more than £16,000 from his firm.
He was yesterday charged by police with nine counts of theft and two counts of false accounting between May, 2004, and November, 2008. They also asked for a further theft charge to be taken into consideration.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard a case against him in March, when he was barred from being a lawyer.
According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) prosecutor who handled the case, Davy asked six clients to pay up front for work by cheque. The money should have gone into his firm’s internal accounts, but he allegedly told them to leave the payee space blank, wrote in his name and put them in his bank.
David Barton, the SRA solicitor who prepared the case against Davy, said: “There were a number of allegations against him involving dipping into a trust fund – misappropriating client money.”
Davy, of Ridgeway, Lowton, near Warrington, will appear at Manchester City Magistrates’ Court on April 26.
He worked for Rupert Wood and Son, in Ashton-under-Lyne, and Geoffrey Lucas, in Manchester.
