Mar 19 2011

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/03/19/greedy-solicitor-gets-four-years-for-laundering-drugs-money-91466-28366028/

A SOLICITOR was yesterday jailed for four years and eight months for money laundering on behalf of a drug dealer, and selling his Lamborghini without a court’s permission.

Benjamin Cornelius, 37, acted as a conveyancing solicitor in the purchase of properties on behalf of his friend, David Carl Richards.

He committed more than £650,000 worth of fraudulent mortgage transactions.

Cornelius denied fraud, money laundering and perverting the course of justice but was convicted after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

The jury heard Richards, convicted of trafficking class-A drugs in July 2010 and already serving a sentence of 12 years, pleaded guilty to fraud at the start of the trial.

Richards, of Garth Road, Rhydyfro, was sentenced yesterday to serve 30 months to run alongside his current sentence.

The court heard Cornelius acted on Richards’ behalf to fraudulently secure mortgage advances and to launder the proceeds of crime by buying property.

Over an 18-month period the frauds enabled Richards to develop a large personal property portfolio in the Neath and Swansea Valleys. The jury was told that, at all stages, Cornelius disguised his involvement in the fraud and laundering process, misleading his employer and the various financial institutions involved in the purchases.

Prosecutor Jeremy Jenkins said the defendant’s actions were in direct contravention of regulations which clearly stated a solicitor could not act for a buyer and provide funds at the same time.

At the time of the offences Cornelius, of St Andrews Close, Mayals, Swansea, worked at W Parry & Co.

His former employer William Parry told jurors the first he knew of the defendant’s alleged conduct was when police turned up at his Walter Road office in Swansea.

The matter was referred to the Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART), which worked closely with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to uncover the true extent of wrongdoing by Cornelius and Richards.

In October 2009 police raided Cornelius’ home and all his assets, including his property, were “restrained”.

The assets included his black Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than £80,000.

In February 2011 Cornelius applied to the court for permission to sell the car but further investigation by the RART revealed it had already been sold in defiance of a Court Order. Cornelius was again arrested and further charged in relation to this offence.

Cornelius had claimed he had misunderstood the rules and made an innocent mistake.

There will now be a future confiscation hearing which will determine the extent to which Cornelius and Richards financially benefited.

Jailing Cornelius, Judge David Wynn said: “You have shown yourself to be a skilled professional, good at your job and hard working.

“But you were also greedy and reckless, prepared to ignore the rules and take chances.

“You arranged the sale of the car in breach of a court order and nobody is allowed to breach an order of the court.

“You were an officer of the court, a qualified man.

“You held yourself up as an honest person but you breached the trust of the profession which trained and employed you.

“You have damaged the reputation of that profession – the trust people place in it will have been dented.”

Defence barrister David Osbourne said: “This is a spectacular fall from grace for him.

“He was well known and well respected in the area and his good name and his professional life are now in tatters. Custody will be the final humiliation.”

The barrister pointed out that no bank had lost any money because all the mortgages were up to date.

Detective Superintendent Chris Dodd, of the regional task force Tarian, said: “Without dishonest solicitors, accountants and financial advisers, criminals would find it much harder to hide or try to legitimise their criminal property. Cornelius now has more than four years to reflect on the consequences of his own conduct and the greed which generated it.”