£6,000 bill that set Cave on road to ruin

A relative of the late Donald Dowson was stunned by the £6,000 bill he received from Cave for work in connection with the £75,000 estate, and it was not long before investigative accountants moved in on the solicitor's practice in Thirsk.

They swept through his office and took away three probate files from the estate of Mr Dowson, Lilian Mawer and Hilda Bentley.

The files, examined by an expert in law costs, revealed suspected overcharging - but more was to follow.

After the OSS closed down his practice in July 2000, a report was sent to the North Yorkshire Police fraud squad.

Officers were pointed to another seven North Yorkshire estates, including that of the late Ethel Johnson, from which Cave had siphoned off more than £88,000.

In the majority of cases, he failed to issue any client care letters, explaining how the charges were being brought.

Instead, when he came under financial pressure, he would dip into the client's account - all the while keeping executors in the dark.

Detective Constable Paul Fenwick, who led the investigation, said: "These were people who had lost relatives or friends, and who would probably be entering matters they knew nothing about, so they believed and trusted everything their solicitor said.

"He abused the trust that people placed in him."

To back their evidence, detectives brought in two law cost draughtsmen to produce figures of what Cave should have charged.

Even erring on the high side, it was blatantly clear that he had stolen tens of thousands of pounds.

"Jeremy Cave is a man who enjoyed a good standard of living and he was a pillar of the community in Thirsk. There is no doubt, talking to his staff, that he worked very, very hard," said Det Con Fenwick.

"But, at the end of the day, he turned to stealing from these estates to support his ailing business rather than making changes to his comfortable lifestyle."