Top divorce lawyer ducks jail over tax fraud scam that saw her pocket £38,000
Dianna Gerald's law firm, which had offices in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Worcester, has been closed by regulators
A TOP divorce lawyer’s career lies in ruins after a judge branded her tax fraud scam "shameful, disrespectful, disgraceful and distasteful."
Dianna Gerald, 49, swindled over £38,000 from the Inland Revenue after exaggerating wages to a former client whom she took on as an employee.
HMRC investigators uncovered the scam after discovering her business records didn’t match self-assessment tax forms.
Gerald - who claimed she has been battling depression for 20 years - was also found to have fabricated invoices to support her false claims.
She filled in forms claiming to pay her admin assistant up to £2,000 a month when in fact she was paying her just £450.
Gerald was convicted of four counts of fraud at Manchester Crown Court - and the Solicitors Regulatory Authority have shut down her family law firm Simply Solicitors which had offices in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Worcester.
Suspending a 21 month jail term Judge Martin Steiger QC told her: ‘’The fact is, you swindled the Revenue out of around £38,000 through your work as a solicitor.
“You went to great lengths to create bogus documents and your conduct was completely disgraceful. You are unsuitable to be a solicitor in sole practice or in a company.
‘’Your behaviour was shameful, disrespectful, disgraceful and distasteful. This was a grave pattern of offending. In my view you are wholly unsuitable to ever be a solicitor ever again.’’
Earlier the court heard Gerald - who qualified as a lawyer after attending night school -had falsely claimed she had clocked up £116,400 worth of expenses including staff costs and also refunds relating to clients’ divorce fees.
The scam began when Gerald acted for Nicola Carter as she went through a bitter split with her husband Alan.