Solicitor escapes jail after Stamp Duty frauds

A solicitor who prospered during the property boom has escaped jail after pleading guilty to seven counts of fraud.

Appearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Malcolm Stewart Graham, who ran SFM Legal Services, received a two-year jail sentence on each count, to run concurrently and suspended for two years.

He was also disqualified as a director for five years.

Graham, 37, from Newcastle, conned clients by encouraging them to sign up to a scheme to help reduce their Stamp Duty Land Tax liabilities.

He promoted the scheme, claiming that they could save millions of pounds. It was, however, a complete fraud with Graham using altered legal documents to make the scheme appear legitimate.

He funded a lavish lifestyle by signing up hundreds of wealthy customers, charging them a 50% administration fee on any reduction in tax their scheme generated.

The plan manipulated the clients’ property transactions and tax returns to fraudulently reduce the amount of Stamp Duty they owed to HMRC.

HMRC has taken action to recover the Stamp Duty, plus interest, from Graham’s clients.

Gary Forbes, acting head of the Criminal Taxes Unit at HMRC, said: “Malcolm Graham was posing as a professional adviser and was not only trying to defraud HMRC out of millions of pounds but was also more than happy to rip off clients who had trusted him.

“Graham was formerly a solicitor who was struck off in 2009 for dishonest practice, so he clearly knew that altering legal documents was a criminal offence but simply chose to ignore the law for a financial gain.”

Graham had previously been the subject of glowing articles in the local press as a result of the rapid expansion of his practice during the property boom.

His firm, SFM Legal Services, was reportedly run from an office in the same block as North East Property Buyers, and was at one time arrested in connection with the scandal associated with North East Property Buyers and Newcastle Home Loans – due to get to trial next March, with Graham not named among the defendants.

Graham became a solicitor in 2001 and built up SFM Legal Services to such an extent that by 2007 it had sales of £4m and over 60 staff. His firm is now in liquidation.