Three months for banned solicitor

"A BANNED SOLICITOR who posed as a colleague to get round a ban on practising law has been found guilty of breach of interdict and jailed for three months - after leaving an ELEVEN year trail of destroyed clients & legal problems across Scotland."

"John Gerard O’Donnell (64) – who also appeared in a special BBC Scotland investigation – Lawyers Behaving Badly – was finally sentenced by Lord Stewart at the Court of Session on Friday. However, O’Donnell was freed for a period of two weeks to enable him to decide if he wants to appeal."

"The custodial sentence comes after a catalogue of evidence heard during court proceedings revealed many examples where the Law Society of Scotland system of self regulation – lawyers investigating themselves – fails to protect the public...."

"However, the judge Lord Stewart said he had no option but to send O'Donnell to prison. Lord Stewart said: "In order to punish Mr O'Donnell and to deter others, the court must impose a custodial sentence."

"One of O’Donnell’s victims – widow Elizabeth Campbell (71) – only discovered O’Donnell was not Colin Davidson after she visited Diary of Injustice law blog and saw his picture along with media investigations into O’Donnell’s decade long trail of client scams."

"Mrs Campbell had been referred to John O’Donnell by Gilbert S Anderson – who worked at Hamilton Citizens Advice Bureau - in a position funded by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. "

"Letters obtained by the Sunday Mail newspaper & Diary of Injustice - revealed Anderson sent O’Donnell a handwritten note saying "possibly in my mind a cash for Colin £3000" indicating he hoped O’Donnell would be able to scam fees from the elderly widow."

http://petercherbi.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/to-catch-brief-it-takes-eleven-years.html