Former solicitor Sean Callaghan has been jailed for four years after stealing funds from clients to fund home renovations, overseas property and a classic car.

A 17-year fraud streak has ended in prison time for Callaghan, who diverted almost £400k from client accounts while at BTMK and Palmers between 2003 and 2020.

Police said he falsified invoices, inflated client fees, and even underpaid beneficiaries of a deceased estate by £20k, pocketing the difference.

His scheme unravelled in 2019 when colleagues uncovered false invoices and alerted police. Investigators later found over a dozen victims and total losses of £396,228.77.

Callaghan, 64, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to 17 counts of fraud and two of theft. He was sentenced to four years’ jail on 3 October.

He’d already been struck off in 2022 for dishonestly misappropriating client funds.

Source: Legal Cheek