Conveyancer on trial for money laundering offence
A solicitor is alleged to have been involved with the conveyancing for a property purchase funded by laundered stolen money, according to reports published by Brighouse Echo.
Solicitor Daniel Hirst, who at the time of the fraud worked for Ramsdens Solicitors in Halifax, is alleged to have been involved with a transaction which used funds illegally obtained via a multi-million pound “Ponzi” scheme to purchase a £530,000 property.
The buyer, John Hirst, 61, father of solicitor Daniel Hirst, is a convicted fraudster who was previously jailed for obtaining money by deception from redundant miners in the 1990s.
His solicitor son, wife and step-daughter are now on trial for money laundering offences.
According to reports, Daniel Hirst, 35, told investigators that he did not suspect that the money given to him by his father to purchase the property, located in Surrey, came from the proceeds of crime.
Daniel Hirst claimed that since his father’s conviction, he has realised the error of his ways and when he instructed Ramsdens to do the legal work in the transaction he had little knowledge of his father’s investment scheme.
However, prosecutor Simon Bourne-Arton QC told Bradford Crown Court that Daniel Hirst should have been alerted to the suspicions surrounding the purchase as his father paid in cash.
Both John Hirst’s wife and step-daughter, who reportedly claim they thought he was a successful businessman, and a fourth person allegedly involved in the fraud, Richard Pollett, 70, are thought to have played “low key” roles in the scheme.
The trail is expected to conclude in the coming weeks.