Man embezzled aunt's shares worth £410,000

GORDON SMITH

A MAN who described himself as his aunt's "right arm" has been found guilty of embezzling £410,000 from her estate.

John Lamberton, 50, also cheated his brother James out of his half share of the estate.

Following a four-week trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, a jury found Lamberton guilty of embezzling stocks and shares worth £410,000 from the estate of his deceased aunt, Annie Paul, of Stack Farmhouse, Bo'ness, between May 21, 1996, and September 8, 1999.

They also found him guilty of tax evasion and of giving his brother, James, who was supposed to receive half of the estate according to the aunt's will, only £5000 as his share.

Sentence had been deferred until yesterday for background reports. However, Sheriff Gordon Liddle said any sentence he could impose would be inadequate and he remitted Lamberton to the High Court.

Lamberton, originally from Eglington, Londonderry, has been in custody since August 5 last year when he was arrested in Spain.

He agreed to be extradited to Scotland in November and was brought back to this country in January.

The delay in bringing him to trial was largely due to the fact that he had four defence teams. The first resigned its position and two others were sacked by him on the morning of the trial day.

Lamberton claimed he sacked his legal teams because he was not getting the proper advice from them.

Fiscal Joan Guy said the real problem was that he would not accept the legal advice.

In his evidence, Lamberton told the jury that he had worked for Fife Council as a civil engineer for a number of years prior to local government reorganisation.

He said he became interested in the stock market around 1986 because of visits to his aunt and uncle.

"When I visited my aunt at her farm my aunt and my uncle would be sitting round the kitchen table reading the Glasgow Herald and Scotsman stock market reports. I became contaminated by this."

He claimed that after his uncle's death, his aunt had become dissatisfied with the Bank of Scotland and felt it was not doing enough to protect the estate from taxation.

His aunt, he said, was a very secretive person and did not want anyone outside the family to operate the substantial portfolio of stocks and shares she had.

The jury, who were presented with hundreds of pages of financial documents, heard that the stocks and shares were moved to a bank in the British Virgin Islands. After his aunt's death, however, Lamberton began transferring money out of the account. He told the court he was now an estate agent and had property worth around £250,000 at La Manga in Spain.

He claimed that he and his brother had an agreement and that his brother would get half of "anything I have".

The fiscal commented: "You got everything and your brother got nothing".

Addressing Sheriff Liddle yesterday, defence counsel Herbert Kerrigan QC said it had to be accepted there had been a serious breach of trust, but he asked that sentence be backdated to August 5 of last year when Lamberton was taken into custody.

Sheriff Liddle said any sentence he could impose would be inadequate and he remitted Lamberton to the High Court.

Officers of the Inland Revenue's Criminal Prosecution Branch later expressed their delight at the decision to remit the case to the High Court. They said people who held the position of executors had to discharge their duties responsibly.

A spokesman added: "We will tackle all types of fraud, not just income tax."

Source: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1223782004

Page Last Updated: 4 March, 2010

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