DISGRACED

Several of his victims were close friends.

A story of broken trust and betrayal was revealed at Mold Crown Court on Monday when the South Cheshire lawyer, once considered a pillar of society, admitted eleven charges of theft over an 11 year period.

Holmes was said to have been robbing Peter to pay Paul among clients of his solicitors firm- Rigby, Stringer and Holmes in Sandbach - where he was a sole practitioner.

The 62 year old, formerly of Hall Drive, Willaston, went bankrupt in 1997 to the tune of £400,000 but was said to have debts of more than £1million with some £600,000 in assets.

Part of the money he stole was used to pay college expenses for the child of a woman with whom he had been having an affair, the court was told.

Holmes also pleaded guilty to false accounting and concealing information from the Solicitor General during his bankruptcy proceedings.

The charges covered a period from 1985 to 1996.

Judge Morton described the thefts as a gross breach of trust.

Initially it was alleged that Holmes had stolen £129,000, but the guilty pleas accepted by the prosecution showed that he had stolen £78, 497.

Prosecuting barrister Richard Marks QC said the before his bankruptcy Holmes had managed to survive by moving money around the various bank accounts he had and by using clients'money for personal reasons.

The thefts were from some half a dozen clients, some of them long-standing, who had trusted him implicitly to handle their affairs. They left him to invest on their behalf as he saw fit.

But when the bubble burst he was unable to pay them back and most had lost money, although two had been repaid.

Amongst the money he took was £1,490 for school fees at Lindisfarne College, Ruabon.

Holmes did not have child at the college, but he had been having an extramarital affair with a woman named Ann Appleton, also known as Ann Stroud whose son attended the college.

The court heard that Holmes, a high profile solicitor of almost 30 years' standing, had lost everything as a result of the case and his life had simply fallen apart.

His fall from grace meant that he had lost his profession, his home and his standing in the community.

His barrister Mr Graham Morrow QC said that his client had brought great shame upon himself and his family and his life was now in ruins.

It was said that he had regarded the taking of money as loans which he was going to pay back. In the end he was taking more cash in a desperate attempt to keep his practice afloat and to prevent his 25 staff from being made redundant.

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