Solicitors guilty of making millions from sick miners

TWO Yorkshire lawyers who earned millions handling compensation claims for sick miners have been struck off for misconduct.

Doncaster-based James Beresford, 58, and Douglas Smith, 51, were found guilty of eight out of 11 allegations of serious professional misconduct at the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal in London.

Working for Beresfords Solicitors in Doncaster the pair earned combined salaries of more than £23m in 2006, specialising in helping miners win payouts from the Government’s coal health compensation scheme.

They have both stepped down as partners of the firm.

The ruling followed a six-day hearing during which the two men denied exploiting sick and elderly miners and insisted that earning substantial fees was no crime.

David Leverton, the tribunal chairman, said that evidence given by Mr Beresford and Mr Smith was “not always believable”.

They were dealing with former miners whose understanding of legal matters was “extremely limited”, he added.

Martin Ryan, managing partner at Beresfords, said the firm would go to the High Court to appeal against the result

The annual earnings of Mr Beresford and Mr Smith, stood at about £182,000 in 2000 before they started raking in millions acting for colliery workers.

The solicitors’ firm expanded rapidly with the advent of the coal claims.

By 2004, Beresfords had a gross profit of £8.75m and by 2006 the profit had risen to £36.2m.

In comparison, thousands of miners received payouts of only several hundred pounds or less.