Solicitor admits false claim to client to settle DWP case for cash

A solicitor has admitted stealing £8,000 from a client after he falsely told her that the DWP would accept the money in place of potentially taking her to court. In fact he had made no such agreement and kept the money instead.

Sentence on David Nightingale was deferred at Hamilton Sheriff Court as Sheriff Ross Macfarlance QC called for reports on the accused, who was working for local firm Cartys at the time of the offence in 2011. He has since left the Law Society of Scotland's roll.

In 2015 he was given 300 hours' unpaid community work with a repayment order and an order to undergo treatment for a gambling addiction for separate offences, while he was with the firm McAfees, of borrowing £12,500 from clients, also under false pretences, which he used to feed his habit (click here for report). He was told then that a prison sentence would have been "inevitable" if he had not pleaded early.