A solicitor has been convicted of ‘tipping off’ a client about an investigation in what the Serious Fraud Office called the first prosecution of its kind. 

William Osmond, 69, co-founder of London firm Osmond & Osmond Solicitors, was convicted under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2022 by a 10 to 2 majority. He was also convicted unanimously on one charge of forgery following a five-day trial at the Old Bailey.

The forgery conviction relates to the forging of a legal document in a bid to mislead SFO investigators.

In 2018, investigators made covert enquiries about James Redding Ramsay, one of Osmond’s clients, who had paid £4m toward the purchase of a property in Mayfair, London. 

Osmond, who was acting money laundering reporting officer for the firm, contacted his client about the money laundering investigation and met with Ramsay multiple times over five months to discuss the matter. He flew to Ramsay’s home in Malta and met him at a private dining club in west London.

Osmond also supplied the SFO with a fake letter of engagement that set out his role as solicitor for a British Virgin Islands company which was purchased by Ramsay and used to move funds for the purchase of the London property.

SFO investigators searched Osmond’s office in 2019 and found five pages of handwritten notes on his discussions with Ramsay, as well as computer files that showed his forgery of the legal letter.

He will be sentenced later this month. 

An SRA spokesperson said: ‘We have been aware of this issue for some time, but it has been on hold pending the SFO’s case. Now that the case has concluded, we will collect all relevant information before deciding on next steps.’