Former Law Soc head's son struck off for theft

The son of a former Law Society president has been stuck off after being convicted of stealing £200,000 from a client.

Terence David Walton Liggins - the son of the late Sir Edmund Liggins, president of the Law Society in 1975 - was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court to 30 months imprisonment for the theft.

Last week he was struck off by the Solicitors

Disciplinary Tribunal following his conviction in May 1998.

Liggins dipped into a client's cash fund to help prop up a failing time-share scheme he was involved in - trading as Circle Holidays - while working at Leamington Spa law firm Blythe Liggins.

Circle Holidays folded with debts of £2.3m and Liggins resigned from Blythe Liggins in July 1994.

Liggins, 55, is still serving his jail sentence at Hywel Grange, Redditch, and did not appear before last week's tribunal hearing.

But in a letter to the panel, he accepts there was no alternative but to strike him off the roll. He adds, however, that he had no intention of practising as a solicitor.

On striking him off, the tribunal also ordered him to pay £3,500 costs.

The Law Society did not proceed with allegations relating to his misconduct as a professional.