A DISHONEST Wirral solicitor used £10,000 entrusted to him by a client to pay his own salary, a disciplinary hearing was told yesterday. Gordon Kingan, 50, was thrown out of the profession after the tribunal heard how he also used a cheque drawn on his client's account to pay his mortgage. The lawyer admitted 24 allegations of wrong doing arising from when he ran his own practice on Wallasey Road, Wallasey. Kingan was given bundles of money by a client in respect of security over a land deal, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal in London heard. The lawyer was too busy to go to the bank and simply dipped into the cash when he felt like it. "He was under an obligation to pay that money into his client accounts but just kept it in a safe," said Mr Jon Goodwin for the Law Society. "Over the subsequent months the £10,000 was utilised by Mr Kingan for his own personal use." The Merseyside lawyer later defended his actions to the Law Society. He said: "At the time it suited me to have cash. "Rather than go to the bank for cash I took it as drawings (salary)." Kingan claimed the client told him he could use the money stating: "Do what the f--- you like as long as we get this deal concluded." He said he could have called the client to give evidence for him but could not afford his expenses. Kingan told the hearing he repaid the cash to an associate of the client - minus his fee.. But the money is now the subject of a claim on the Law Society Compensation fund. Kingan told the hearing: "It was not simply: 'Here's £10,000 of client's money - I'll go on holiday'. It was convenient to me to use the cash that was in the safe rather than go to the bank." Kingan admitted paying his mortgage with client's money but told the hearing: "It was just simply an error of using the wrong cheque book." The hearing was told how he also failed to file his accounts, ignored letters from his governing body and acted for both parties in property deals. Accounts that were found by investigators were not properly written up. The lawyer also failed to pay £1,500 compensation when he mishandled a dead client's estate. He was before the tribunal for similar matters in 1989. Kingan blamed pressure of work for the shambles at his firm. The tribunal found Kingan, of Claremont Road, Wallasey, had been dishonest with the £10,000. Ending a 30-year career, tribunal chairman Mr Roger Woolfe said: "He knew, or should have known what he did was dishonest and wrong." Kingan was also ordered to pay £20,000 in costs. | 
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