A PROMINENT solicitor and his carer wife have been accused of abusing their positions of trust to fleece hundreds of thousands of pounds from elderly and vulnerable clients.
Northallerton Magistrates Court heard Giles and Clare Scott allegedly used their roles with elderly people for more than five years to accumulate more than £408,000, £267,000 of which was still to be accounted for.
They are even accused of duping a retired vicar.
Solicitor Giles Scott with his wife, Clare, on their wedding day
The couple have been well-known figures in Hambleton district and York for many years, with Mr Scott continuing with his role as chairman of a fundraising committee for the historic church near their home in Stearsby, south of Thirsk, after being charged with 13 offences.
Leading wills specialist Mr Scott, whose family began practising law in York 137 years ago, has been charged with four counts of fraud by abuse of position between March 2009 and August 2014.
The 62-year-old faces seven charges of concealing, disguising, transferring or removing criminal property between January 2012 and October 2014, and two fraud by false representation counts.
Mrs Scott faces six money laundering charges between January 2012 and October 2014, another of dishonestly failing to disclose information to make a gain for herself in 2013 and one of fraud by abuse of position, between March 2009 and January last year.
The charges allege while Mr Scott was a partner at leading solicitors Langleys, where he specialised on wills and estates and was expected to safeguard the financial interests of clients, he used a power of attorney to cream off £207,946 of assets from an investment portfolio belonging to a vicar.
As carer for the retired Church of England vicar, Mrs Scott, 61, was also expected to protect their interests, but the charges allege she abused that position to make a gain for herself.
Prosecutors have accused the couple of trading in the vicar's Ford Focus in part payment for a VW Tiguan car when they were not authorised to do so.
The charges allege Mr Scott made dishonest representations to NatWest Bank staff that he was authorised to use a power of attorney to take funds from an account and that the funds would be applied to her benefit, when he no longer was a partner in the firm.
Mr Scott is alleged to have used a power of attorney over three other clients, one of whom died last year, to transfer amounts totalling £200,382 into an account held jointly in his name.
The court heard a number of the charges related to the transferring of money between several accounts, including one belonging to their daughter, Catherine.
The couple hit the headlines in 2014, when their fashion designer daughter, Elizabeth, held an almost identical wedding to theirs 38 years earlier, getting married in the same North Yorkshire church with the same hymns, reading, number of guests and reception venue.
Magistrates transferred the case to be heard at Teesside Crown Court on February 12.
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