Prosecutor attacks 'bent' lawyer

A "bent solicitor" lived a life of extravagance after stealing more than £1m from a disabled client, a prosecutor has told a court. Thomas McGoldrick, 59, spent thousands of pounds on foreign holidays, a golf club and home improvements, Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, heard.

His client, Keith Anderson, of Croydon, south London, was awarded £1.8m after a road accident left him paralysed. Mr McGoldrick, of Cheshire, denies fraud and says the money was a "gift".

He is alleged to have forged a letter from Mr Anderson, 45, purporting to award him £900,000 - half of the settlement his firm had won. Mr Anderson, a father-of-three, was left paralysed from the chest down and quadriplegic, after the road accident in November 1996.

Earlier, Mr McGoldrick told the court he drafted the letter at Mr Anderson's request - something his former client denies. Mr Anderson has told the court the letter is a forgery and he was "shocked" to discover the cash had gone. The jury was told that Mr McGoldrick was £1.4m in debt at the time on 13 credit cards and more than 30 loans.

Despite the debts, he spent £3,500 to join Mere Golf and Country Club in Cheshire, £1,600 on a climbing frame for his children in the garden of his house, and £15,000 on his kitchen, the court heard. David Friesner, prosecuting, said: "I'm going to suggest to you, you were living an extravagant lifestyle, a grossly extravagant lifestyle."

Mr McGoldrick, a solicitor since 1973, also allegedly falsified his firm's accounts to get overdraft facilities and loans. He faces 53 counts of false accounting, two counts of obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception, one count of forgery and one count of money laundering between December 1999 and September 2004.

He denies all the charges and has told the court any finance he obtained in credit cards and loans was on the strength of accounts submitted by his accountants. Mr Friesner suggested the defendant had gone further than taking £900,000 and had actually taken up to £1.2m of Mr Anderson's damage award.

Mr McGoldrick said he was "taken aback" and "surprised" at being asked to take half of his client's money, but agreed to draw up the letter and accept the money. "I did what I did in what I thought was an honourable way," he told the court. "I resent the implication I abandoned him," he added. Mr Friesner replied, "I'm suggesting you are a bent solicitor, a dishonest, bent, dishonourable solicitor and have been for years."