Solicitor faces fraud trial

6:01pm Wednesday 7th November 2007

A solicitor has gone on trial accused of being part of a plot to snap up rundown properties by cheating the owners.

Philip Lowe, 42, was involved in a conspiracy led by builder-cum-property developer Mohammed Alyas, a Bradford Crown Court jury was told.

Forged documents were sent to the Land Registry and the Probate Division Registry to transfer the ownership of properties in Bradford and in Eastburn, near Keighley, the court was told.

Lowe, of Low Bank, Burnley, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to defraud.

Sean Morris, prosecuting, said Lowe was the sole practitioner in the Cross Hills law firm of Lowe & Co. He said: "The defendant was involved in two conspiracies to defraud innocent people of their legal title (ownership) of their own property."

The common denominator in the case was Alyas, who had admitted conspiracy. It had required a lawyer to do the legal work - someone prepared to act dishonestly.

"That is where this defendant came in," said Mr Morris. The others - two men and a woman - were recruited and taken to Lowe's office to create and sign bogus documents, he alleged.

Some of the paperwork was done by Lowe's unqualified conveyancing clerk, Julie Miller, who has also admitted involvement in the conspiracy. Carl Squire, a friend and former neighbour of Alyas, forged some of the documents. "The Crown say the defendant knew that, or must have known that," said Mr Morris.

The first property was a house in Rooley Lane, Bradford, the owner of which lived in Hong Kong at the time. The ownership was transferred to Alyas in June 2005, after the name of an innocent third party had been used to create false power of attorney.

The actual owner's son only became aware of what had happened when Bradford Council wrote to him, asking for the name of the person to whom the house had been sold.

Ownership of a second property, in North View, Eastburn, was acquired by creating false power of attorney and then falsely registering ownership.

Another of those involved in the conspiracy, Carol Porrit, was persuaded by Alyas to sign a document stating that her late husband had lived at the property and she was entitled to his estate. In fact, the real owner of the house - which had stood empty for 30 years - was a man called Timothy Denton.

The leading lights in that fraud were Alyas and Lowe, said Mr Morris. Among the documents seized from Lowe's office was a false oath for administrators.

After his arrest, Lowe admitted doing some of the legal work for the North View property but blamed Mrs Miller for what had taken place.

The trial continues.

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