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Conveyancer struck off after helping criminal gangs launder drug cash

Ross Ian Mackay has accepted his role in a prolific scam that saw some 80 properties bought via mortgage fraud from the early noughties onwards.

Nigel Lewis

solicitor money laundering

A solicitor jailed last year for helping criminals disguise their ill-gotten gains within 80 property transactions with the aim of money laundering has been struck off .

Ross Ian McKay told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that he accepted being banned after receiving a seven-year sentence in January 2019 on three counts of money laundering.

The 40-year-old worked in particular for two criminals including a drug-dealer to take funds given to him and use them to make deposits on investment properties, turning a blind eye to where the cash had originated from.

He is said to have helped these two clients secure properties worth some £7.3 million

Go to solicitor

His crimes took place while working as an in-house conveyancing solicitor at a legal firm in Cheshire. He eventually became the ‘go to’ solicitor for criminal drug gang members in the Manchester area, it was revealed during this trial.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that deposits were put down on properties and the source of funds disguised while mortgage applications used nominees instead of the names of the actual purchasers.

“Senior financial investigator Adrian Ladkin of Greater Manchester Police’s economic crime unit, says: ‘McKay was fully aware that the purpose of the transactions was to launder criminal proceeds and he was deliberately dishonest in facilitating them. As a solicitor, McKay was in a position of trust, but he spectacularly failed in his legal duties through his corrupt and unlawful actions.”

As well as being struck off, McKay must also pay £1,450 in costs.

Read more about money laundering.

 

July 6, 2020

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