A former deputy coroner and high-profile probate solicitor has been jailed for stealing more than £43,000 from a charitable trust.
Alan Benstock, 51, a former deputy coroner for West Yorkshire and former vice-chairman of the Law Society’s probate section, was sentenced to 22 months for thefts that occurred while he was working at Wakefield firm Lister Croft between March and April 2006.
Leeds Crown Court heard how Benstock took £43,450 from the estates of three clients and put it into a charitable trust, which he kept secret from his colleagues at Lister Croft and did not register with the Charities Commission.
He used the money to fund personal expenses including paying off his credit card bills, his family’s private medical fees and his daughter’s school fees. He used some of the money in a fruitless attempt to generate more business for the firm.
The court heard Benstock had paid back the money after borrowing from his brother and sister-in-law.
Passing sentence, Judge Penelope Belcher said: ‘I do not think you were someone who was motivated by greed, but you were undoubtedly motivated by a desire to live beyond your means.’
In a second, unrelated case, another prominent Yorkshire solicitor, award-winning Shadab Ahmed Khan, former senior partner at Bradford firm Solicitors Direct, was jailed for four years for laundering drugs money.
Leeds Crown Court heard that 38-year-old Khan conducted conveyancing for properties worth £593,000 for convicted drug dealer Khalid Malik, who is now serving a 25-year prison term.
Prosecutors said Malik had been putting cash into properties, either himself or through third parties, and Khan either knew or suspected what was happening. Khan was convicted last month of one charge of money laundering and two counts of failing to disclose a suspicion of money laundering. He was cleared of a second charge of money laundering.
In 2003 Khan set up his law firm in the wake of the 2001 Manningham riots and was named professional of the year at the Yorkshire Asian Business Convention.
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