A former lawyer disbarred by the Law Society of Upper Canada last year is in hot water once again after police charged him with 30 criminal offences related to more than $1 million in missing funds.
“Since the summer of 2008, the London Police Service fraud section have received complaints in regards to the professional business practices of Alec John Dobson, a resident of London, with a legal practice that was located near the village of Dorchester,”
police in London, Ont., said on Friday.
The charges include 11 counts of theft of entrusted monies over $5,000; 11 counts of breach of trust; and eight counts of uttering falsified documents. More than $1 million have gone missing, police said. None of the criminal allegations against him have been proven in court.
On Nov. 24, 2009, the law society disbarred Dobson following a panel’s findings on a very long list of disciplinary matters.
The 34 findings included misleading a client, identified as S.D., who asked why he was continuing to pay interest on a line of credit. According to the LSUC, Dobson failed to notify the client he hadn’t paid off the line of credit and instead used the money for another purpose. Other matters dealing with different clients related to reporting letters Dobson wrote falsely claiming to have used money to pay out mortgages. In addition, the law society found he improperly withdrew money held on behalf of six clients from his trust account and failed to maintain proper books and records.
Besides disbarring him, the law society ordered him to pay more than $158,000 to the compensation fund and $5,000 in costs.
Dobson was to appear in court on Friday.
Dorchester is nearly 20 kilometres east of London.
