Kilshaw reinstatement bid is lost

Judith Kishaw represented her husband at the High Court

A man who was at the heart of an internet adoption scandal more than four years ago has failed in his legal bid to be reinstated as a solicitor.

Alan Kilshaw, 50, from Shotton, was struck off after it was found he had improperly used £17,000 of his clients' money to prop up his overdraft.

Judith Kilshaw said the move had taken away her husband's "manhood".

But a High Court judge dismissed the appeal, saying Mr Kilshaw had deliberately kept the clients' money.

The Kilshaws made headlines around the world in January 2001 when when they tried to adopt baby girls from the US over the internet for £8,200.

But social services intervened and a court ruled that the sisters should be returned to their mother in the US.

There is a heavy duty at all times on solicitors to act with integrity and probity Lord Justice Rose

Eighteen months later Mr Kilshaw was struck off by a disciplinary panel after breaching the professions' strict financial rules.

On Monday, Mrs Kilshaw told the High Court in London that it was "just too strong a sentence".

The pair, who ran a legal firm dealing with housing matters mainly in London and south Wales, had got into trouble over payments due to an environmental health inspector they employed.

They had claimed the money to pay him from the Legal Aid Board, but because their personal and business bank accounts were each £35,000 overdrawn the money has been swallowed up before the could transfer it out, Mrs Kilshaw said.

Under solicitors' rules, the cash should have been deposited in a holding account, so that the firm did not gain interest on it.

Mrs Kilshaw described husband Alan as an 'English gentleman'

Mrs Kilshaw told the court that the original disciplinary hearing should not have gone ahead because her husband had been too ill with stress and depression to effectively represent himself.

The decision had left Mr Kilshaw, whom she described as "an English gentleman", emasculated and unable to support his family.

"My husband has not practiced for a long while now, and we are a family with two young children to support," Mrs Kilshaw said.

"The firm's gone, his standing in the community is good. When a man can't provide for his family it takes away his manhood to a degree".

However, Lord Justice Rose dismissed the appeal,saying Alan Kilshaw had made a "deliberate decision to retain the money".

"There is a heavy duty at all times on solicitors to act with integrity and probity," he added