BC lawyer misappropriated elderly client’s trust funds, Law Society panel finds
Instead of protecting her interests, the panel found, he used that access to benefit himself. In July 2021, he had her sign over half her Vernon condo, worth an estimated $385,000, naming himself joint owner. The transfer went through the land title office that December.
Then came the money. Acting under her power of attorney, he moved $116,866.16 out of her trust account and into a company he owned – without her authorization, the panel found. That cash helped him buy his own $340,000 home and cover a payout in an unrelated client’s file. He argued the transfers should count as an improper withdrawal rather than outright misappropriation, but the panel disagreed, ruling he knew he was acting outside his authority.
To make the loan story stick, he had the client sign two promissory notes – one for $81,886.16, another for $35,000 – each promising 5 per cent interest on money she’d supposedly lent his company. Neither has ever been repaid.
The final piece: in March 2022, he drafted a new will for the client naming himself as executor and beneficiary of 75 per cent of her estate.
None of it – the property transfer, the loans, or the will – came with independent legal advice for the client. She was later diagnosed with vascular dementia, and a complaint reached the Law Society in 2023. The lawyer resigned from practice in July 2025 and is now a former member.
