Legal Aid scam boss convicted

Tim Robinson was jailed for fraud in 2001

A lawyer best known for representing murderer Tracie Andrews has been convicted of masterminding a multi-million pound Legal Aid scam.

Tim Robinson, 60, was convicted along with 21 employees over the submission of bogus Legal Aid forms.

The case came to light on Friday when a judge lifted reporting restrictions.

It is estimated they claimed for millions of pounds of work which was never done. Robinson was jailed in 2001 and released in July this year.

Robinson, who served half of a seven-year jail term, was one of 29 legal staff arrested for defrauding the Legal Aid Board.

This defendant will never work again in the meaningful sense, and his reputation is utterly, completely ruined David Etherington QC, Tim Robinson's barrister List of convicted staff

At his trial, Bristol Crown Court heard how the scam centred on the Green Forms which were used by law firms to claim for certain types of Legal Aid work.

In the early 1990s, Robinsons Solicitors, which had offices in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol and Swindon, but no longer exists, boasted it was one of the largest specialist criminal law practices in Britain.

They worked on the defence of Tracie Andrews who murdered her fiancé in 1997, claiming he had been the victim of a road rage attack.

But in a number of the firm's other cases, some solicitors and clerks exaggerated their bills or simply made up clients, the court heard.

The scam was uncovered after police received a tip-off.

It is not known exactly how much was defrauded from the Legal Aid Board, but estimates suggest it could have been as much as half the £17 million claimed by Robinsons during the period investigated.

At the trial, one of his former employees said that up to 90% of the Green Forms submitted by the firm's Cheltenham office were fraudulent.

Ian Glen QC, prosecuting, said Robinson was described by one of his clerks as "a mini-Maxwell, obsessed with power and money".

Mr Glen said: "Mr Robinson himself was very careful not to dirty his own hands.

"He got others to commit the frauds with those Green Forms... It was his fee-earning clerks who did the dirty work."

Officers seized 21 tonnes of documents, including Green Forms

Reporting restrictions were lifted on Friday after the case against one defendant, Archie Ross, 51, was ordered to lie on file when he was ruled unfit to stand trial.

Of those arrested, 22 either pleaded guilty or were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the Legal Aid system, five were acquitted and charges against two were ordered to lie on file.

The investigation, one of the largest of its kind, began in April 1993.

At its height, more than 120 police officers worked on the case. It is thought the legal costs alone run to £40m.

Judge David Smith heard the Serious Fraud Office had traced assets belonging to Robinson or his wife totalling £1.6 million and that the lawyer had taken about £3 million from his firm in the period 1991 to 1999.

The judge imposed a confiscation order on Robinson of £532,275 which he ordered to be paid as compensation to what is now called the Legal Services Commission.

He also decided he should pay £500,000 in prosecution costs.

Robinson appealed against his conviction and then his sentence in October 2002, but lost both appeals.

After Robinson was found guilty, his barrister, David Etherington QC, said Robinson had gone from being a highly-respected figure in his community to working in a prison kitchen.

"This defendant will never work again in the meaningful sense, and his reputation is utterly, completely ruined."