 |
| A Melbourne lawyer has been jailed for stealing more than $260,000 from clients |
by Karen Sweeney
While
suburban lawyer John James Kotsifas was living the high life with money
he stole from his clients, they were getting deeper and deeper into
debt.
He
bought and renovated a million-dollar property, installed a swimming
pool and paid golf club green fees with money entrusted to him by
clients and friends.
Then it all came undone.
Already
bankrupt, disbarred and living back home with his mother, his life hit a
new low on Thursday when he was jailed for six years for his crimes.
Kotsifas
was convicted of 23 charges, including the theft of $267,000 from
clients and another $1.49 million he was supposed to have held on trust
for them.
He is not to be confused with another Melbourne solicitor named John Andrew Kotsifas
Kotsifas helped himself to more than $400,000 he held on trust for one client.
She
identified 27 transactions by him that she hadn't authorised, including
the payment of his golf club green fees and settlement fees for
properties she didn't own.
He stole $20,000 from another client to install a swimming pool and pay a real estate agent.
Kotsifas
held more than $200,000 for stamp duty fees he never paid, costing the
client another $167,000 out of pocket for the tax.
He
has a history of disciplinary proceedings dating back to 2006,
including VCAT proceedings that were underway for trust account offences
during this offending.
A forensic accountant had to be brought in to sort through the mess he left.
When
the $450,000 he had left on trust was paid out after his practice shut
down, clients received just 47 cents on the dollar back.
One
woman said she felt preyed on by Kotsifas, who destroyed her
financially and left her on the brink of homelessness because of his
greed.
Another said Kotsifas was a solicitor for her gravely ill, and now deceased, husband for 20 years.
He trusted Kotsifas as a friend and would have been gutted by the betrayal, she said.
Kotsifas,
a twice married father of four, said he was under financial pressure
when he committed his crimes, blaming pressure from his second wife to
sustain a certain lifestyle.
He
bought a $1.2 million Balwyn North property with a substantial mortgage
and had a second large loan to cover renovations so he could then sell
that home to buy a $2.4 million English Tudor-style home in Balwyn.
Kotsifas spent clients' money to rent the second Balwyn home during the purchase process.
But he defaulted on the first two mortgages rendering him unable to buy the other property, costing him his $247,000 deposit.
Supreme
Court Justice John Champion said Kotsifas' offending was calculated,
repeated, significant and a sustained betrayal of trust.
He
posed as a solicitor and confidante to people he was meant to be on
friendly terms with, but manipulated them and stole their money, he
said.
Full Article & Source:
Lawyer stole from clients to renovate home
No comments:
Post a Comment