A solicitor who was convicted of fraudulently submitting false invoices for police station work to fund his cocaine habit has been struck off.

Dominic John Peter Ingle had been working as a self-employed police station representative on behalf of firms in the Manchester/Lancashire area.

When work dropped off in 2016, the solicitor could not afford what had been a 15-year cocaine habit.  As a result, he submitted 40 fake invoices of £100 each to two different solicitors’ firms over three months, totalling £4,100 – stealing some £2,400 from one and £1,700 from the other.

He was sentenced by the Crown Court to seven months’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months. Among other things, he was also required to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work.

(Source – Legal Futures website)