A shamed solicitor has been reduced to working as

A shamed solicitor has been reduced to working as a car park attendant after his negligence allowed swindlers to carry out a mortgage fraud.

Thambapillai Yogananther, 56, had a successful practice in Booth Road, Colindale, with scores of satisfied clients, the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal heard.

But when he acted in two property transactions the lawyer ‘closed his eyes to quite obvious signs of mortgage fraud,’ said Margaret Bromley for the Law Society.

‘It was his action, or lack of action that facilitated these mortgage frauds.

‘The respondent did not even begin to carry out the most basic investigations to satisfy himself that these were genuine clients.

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The tribunal heard the swindlers borrowed more money than the properties in Kilburn and and Maida Vale were worth and pocketed the difference.

Mrs Bromley stressed there was no evidence to show Yogananther was directly involved in the fraud.

The tribunal heard Yogananther had been before the disciplinary panel in 1996 for taking money out of the clients account and failing to keep proper accounts.

He was suspended for a year after he admitted breaking the strict solicitor’s code of conduct

The hearing was told since the latest matters came to light the solicitor has been relying on his wife to be the main family breadwinner.

Yogananther, who has sons aged 12 and 17, has been earning between pnds stlg 150 and 200 a week as a car park attendant.

He wiped tears from his eyes when he appeared at the tribunal to accept the allegations against him.

Panel chairman Mr Jeremy Barnecutt said: ‘Mr Yogananther was clearly reckless and negligent to a high degree.

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He ordered Yogananther be suspended again – this time indefinitely.

ends