Ex-Advocate loses almost £20,000 after fraud against SLAB

Mark Strachan, 56, must pay the order on top of the £11,663.80 he has already paid the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB)

On 14 March 2014, Mr Strachan was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, after having been found guilty on 14 February 2014 of fraud totalling £11,663.80 and attempted fraud totalling £37,882.

Between March 2006 and November 2010, he submitted numerous false travel claims for expenses to the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).

The Legal Aid Regulations set out that if an advocate or solicitor travels more than 60 miles as part of their work (a minimum 120 mile round trip), they are entitled to claim their mileage plus a travel allowance. This is payable only once per day, regardless of how many cases the journey is undertaken for.

Analysis by SLAB of claims submitted by Mr Strachan gave rise to suspicions of duplicate charging across multiple accounts, and following a full investigation by police and prosecutors, 137 instances of duplicate charging and 204 instances of having claimed for travel which was not undertaken were uncovered.

The Crown’s position at trial was that, for many of the occasions when he claimed for travel, the ex-advocate had not in fact undertaken the stated journeys between Edinburgh or Linlithgow and Aberdeen, but instead had only travelled to Aberdeen from his home at Insch.

As part of the proceeds of crime case against him, the Crown conducted a full review of the previous six years of his finances and established that, in addition to the money earned from the frauds, an additional £7,500 could not be accounted for.

Lindsey Miller, procurator fiscal for organised crime & counter terrorism, said: “Those who think they can profit from criminality should rethink their plans.

“Strachan has not only repaid the full sum that he defrauded from SLAB, but his conviction opened him up to a full Proceeds of Crime assessment, which has led to the confiscation of a further £7,500 of unexplained income.

“The confiscated funds will be re-invested in the community by Scottish Ministers, through the CashBack for Communities programme.”

Colin Lancaster, chief executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), said: “Over a three year period our senior accounts and investigations staff, who first identified the problems, worked very closely with both the Crown and Police Scotland on this case.

“The court decided Mr Strachan deliberately defrauded the taxpayer and tried to further defraud the taxpayer by attempting to be paid for journeys he did not make.

“The vast majority of solicitors and members of Faculty act with honesty and integrity. However, this case demonstrates the importance of SLAB’s efforts to prevent fraud or abuse of the legal aid fund, and the serious consequences for anyone attempting to do so.”