A Solicitor Sent to Prison.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 204, 2 January 1894, Page 2

A Solicitor Sent to Prison.

A solicitor, who was found guilty the previous day of misappropriating a cheque for the payment of £2650, the property of Rebecca Campbell, his client, was brought forward for sentence in Sydney on the 14th instunt. His Honor the Chief Justice said that thi3 was a most painful cane. Prisoner, in the exercise of his profession, had always been considered an honrst man, and it was therefore a sad thing to have to pass sentence upon him. In any case he must be struck off the rolls for ever in his profession, and that would be a more severe punishment than any which the law allowed him to inflict. The case was a very serious one and in some respects a very cruel one. Solicitors, above all men, were the most trusted in the community ; and very properly so, because the public relied upon it that no one could become a solicitor of the Court unless he bore an irreproachable character. The Court was always most careful, scrupulously careful, not only as to the character of the young men admitted to study the profession, but also as to the character of the men admitted to practice. They were entrusted with secrets and valuables belonging to their clients ; and generally they were true to their trust. Unfortunately, in this case the prisoner appeared to have applied the money entrusted to him to private speculation, and an exemplary punishment must be inflicted as a deterrent to others. It seemed to be generally thought that attorneys could only be punished by being struck off the rolls, but the public ought to know that attorneys were amendable to the criminal law. The sentence of the Court was that accused be kept to penal servitude in Bathurst Gaol for a period of five years. His Honour also ordered that £500 be paid out of j prisoner's property to Mrs Campbell, contingent on there being any surplus from prisoner's bankrupt estate.