Arrested solicitors struck off after SRA hearing

Dec 17 2009 by Sophie Doughty, The Journal

TWO solicitors arrested in connection with the North East Property Buyers scandal have been struck off by law industry watchdogs.

Malcolm Graham and Wendy Ostell, also known as Gurr, were both stripped of their right to practise at a Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) disciplinary hearing.

And the two former directors of Gateshead-based SFM Legal Services, have both also been given heavy fines.

Mr Graham, 34, of Darras Hall, Northumberland, has been ordered to pay £116,800 in costs, and Ms Gurr, 32, of Whickham, Gateshead, will have to cough up £20,000.

The solicitors, who ran SFM Legal Services from an office in the same block as North East Property Buyers, were arrested last month by detectives probing an alleged property fraud.

They are suspected of being involved in a significant number of the 2,000 North East Property Buyers mortgage applications which are under scrutiny.

Both were questioned and released on bail.

Det Sgt Phil Loveday of Northumbria Police’s Economic Crime Unit said: “Over the period we are looking at there were at least 2,000 mortgage applications and we suspect the people we have arrested appear to have been involved in significant proportion of them.”