CORONER Jeremy Cave was behind bars last night after being jailed for stealing from the estates of dead clients.

The corrupt North Yorkshire solicitor swindled £155,000 over a period of ten years, overcharging relatives by as much as 250 per cent as he wound up estates.

Yesterday, the 53-year-old was jailed for three-and-a-half years at the end of a nine-week trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Judge Leslie Spittle told him: "You were highly regarded in the community and people felt they could place their trust in you and be well served by you as a solicitor.

"That trust was misguided and you greatly abused it. Your victims were vulnerable people who were coping with the death of a relative or near friend."

Cave nodded in agreement as the judge added that he had "shamed and disgraced" himself and his family.

The Law Society revealed last night that it was planning to take civil action against Cave after it was forced to repay the money to the plundered estates.

As a solicitor for more than 20 years and a coroner, Cave was a pillar of society in the Thirsk area. He formerly lived nearby at Balk but had been living recently in Front Street, Sowerby.

Thirsk mayor Andrew Robinson said after the sentence: "It is very sad that a man like him needed to go down the road of deceit."

The long investigation into the allegations began in November 2000 and was led by Detective Constable Paul Fenwick, of North Yorkshire Police Fraud Squad.

He said: "A lot of people have been taken in, he has deceived a lot of old people and a lot of friends to enable himself to carry out these crimes."

A Law Society investigator began after the family of Donald Dowson received a "grossly inflated" bill of £6,000.

Investigative accountants later seized documents and the over-inflated fees were discovered.

Among the estates swindled was that of Ethel Johnson, which was overcharged by £88,420, and that of Harry Manning, which was overcharged by £38,925.

Cave had denied ten charges of thefts from the beneficiaries of the estates between 1990 and 2000 and earlier told the court he had never set out to deliberately swindle anyone.

"If anything I may have been incompetent but I'm not a thief," he told the jury.

Cave was found guilty on six of the counts and cleared of one charge.

The judge ordered the remaining three charges should "lie on file" after the jury failed to reach verdicts after almost 11 hours of deliberation.

Cave was appointed as North Yorkshire's western district coroner in 1997 but was suspended from his duties on June 27, 2001.

Following the verdict and sentencing, the county council will be consulting the Home Office and the Lord Chancellor, but Cave's sacking and replacement is thought to be inevitable.

Preying on the dead

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