Disgraced solicitor who fled to South Africa handed six year jail sentence for £1m fraud

A FORMER Yorkshire solicitor who went on the run for 12 years has been handed a six year jail sentence after carrying out what a judge described as two “spectacular mortgage frauds”. 

John Fitzpatrick, who worked at TI Clough & Co, pleaded guilty in November to two charges of obtaining money transfers by deception and seven charges of theft representing more than £1m.

He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court for theft and fraud offences.

In passing sentence HHJ Moore said: “John Fitzpatrick joined with others in two quite spectacular mortgage frauds. 

“The final theft deserved special mention as John Fitzpatrick was so desperate for money at that stage to avoid an inevitable investigation, he stole £100,000 of client money.”

Mr Fitzpatrick was employed by TI Clough & Co solicitors in Bradford between February 2000 and September 2000, however he also operated as a solicitor under his own name from his home address.

The two charges of obtaining money transfers by deception related to his role as a solicitor facilitating mortgage frauds which formed part of the case successfully advanced by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the West Yorkshire Police in November 2004 against Noel Ward, Raymond Brown, Tracy Ryder, Ian Colphon and Andrew Young and in 2009 against Lisa Sanderson. 

Fitzpatrick would have been tried alongside them had he not fled the jurisdiction in an attempt to evade justice.

He acted as a facilitator to a dishonest mortgage broker and his client in a fraudulent back to back property sale at an inflated price defrauding the mortgage lender and involving forged documents and identity theft.

The SFO said Fitzpatrick himself was the instigator, prime mover and principal beneficiary of another mortgage fraud, both on the mortgage lender and his own client.

The seven counts of theft involved Fitzpatrick stealing clients’ money. Three counts related to theft of funds entrusted to him in the course of the victims buying or selling a home. One victim was left jobless and homeless as a result of Fitzpatrick stealing money intended for the purchase of a home and business. Another arrived to move in at the home he believed he had bought only to find it had not been sold to him at all and Fitzpatrick had stolen the purchase funds.
Four counts related to theft of funds entrusted to Fitzpatrick for investment on the false promise of high returns, which were instead appropriated for his own purposes.

Following intelligence received on Fitzpatrick’s whereabouts, enquiries were undertaken in the Krugersdorp area of South Africa and an extradition request was made in August 2011. 

Fitzpatrick was arrested in May 2013 by the South African authorities while using the alias John Cooper and was remanded in custody, initially in Krugersdorp prison before being transferred to Pretoria.

He did not contest the extradition and an order was given for his surrender to the UK authorities. He was repatriated with the assistance of officers from West Yorkshire Police.

Fitzpatrick’s imprisonment is the final stage in a successful investigation and prosecution conducted by the SFO in conjunction with the West Yorkshire Police.
The offences took place between 1997 and 2001 and he was struck off the Roll of Solicitors in 2002.