London Conveyancing firm shut down over alleged dishonesty

This morning’s Times contains an article Solicitors Regulation Authority closes down law firm Wolstenholmes. The article reveals that five solicitors have been suspended after allegations of dishonesty involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of clients’ money.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has started an investigation into the activities of Cheshire-based Wolstenholmes, which was established in 1818 and carries out conveyancing in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Customers have bombarded the forums of websites such as Money Saving Expert with complaints about the way the company takes £300 as a deposit and then allegedly does not return calls.

One client of the conveyancing firm has reportedly told the BBC that she had been left living in a caravan with her children. She claimed that the £445,000 she had transferred to Wolstenholmes, nearly half of which was her own money, had been frozen.