A CROOKED lawyer who cheated colleagues and firms out of thousands of pounds has failed in his bid to be allowed back into the profession.
At a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on Friday, chairman Richard Potter made an order under the Solicitors' Act 1974, stating Antony Terry Laughton cannot be restored to the solicitors' roll without a ruling from the Law Society. The 46-year-old set up will-writing company Wills Assist in Trowbridge in 2002 while banned from being in business as an undischarged bankrupt.
Laughton, then of Jasmine Way, Trowbridge, admitted five charges of forgery and one count of being the director of a company while an undischarged bankrupt at Swindon Crown Court last year and was jailed for 15 months. He was removed from the solicitors' roll in October 2002.
Laughton, now of High Street, Westbury, did not attend the tribunal but argued in a letter that he was not a qualified lawyer at the time of the offences.
Paul Milton, for the Law Society, said an investigation found Laughton was a practising solicitor at the time of three of the forgery offences.
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