Edwin Coe to sue former client over unpaid legal fees

Edwin Coe has kickstarted a legal battle against its flamboyant convicted fraudster client Terry Ramsden.

The commercial law firm is suing Ramsden - an entrepreneur who is said to have gambled £77m on horse races in two years - for more than £125,000 for failing to pay his bills for professional legal services and disbursements rendered for almost a year from the end of September 2004.

Edwin Coe is claiming a total of £125,061.85, with interest of £10,059.77 to date and a continuing interest of £24.41 a day from the prolific gambler.

Ramsden made his fortune in the 1980s by gambling on the Japanese securities market. However, Ramsden, who went on to become the owner of Walsall FC and a stakeholder in Chelsea FC, lost it all as quickly as he made it.

The market crumbled and Ramsden lost 76 racehorses as well as his football investments, and so by 1987 he declared himself bankrupt and served 10 months in jail for concealing his assets from the Inland Revenue.

The case has been assigned to Master Fontaine at the Queen's Bench Division of the Royal Courts of Justice. Edwin Coe, which recently lost a misfeasance case against the Government brought by a group of former Railtrack shareholders, is representing itself, with senior partner Christopher Berry leading.

Ramsden was unavailable for comment.