Disgraced former lawyer to surrender pension

Friday 31 May 2019

A disgraced ex-solicitor who was jailed for using nearly £100,000 of his clients’ money to plug his failing firm's debts will have to surrender his pension as a result of his offending, the Royal Court has ruled.

62-year-old Kevin Robert Manning was sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars for his trying to “trade his way through his problems” using client cash in December last year.

Now the Royal Court has ruled he must also surrender his pension as part of his punishment.

Convicted of 22 counts of dishonestly moving his clients’ money, the ex-lawyer was subject to a ‘confiscation order’ whereby the Attorney General can demand offenders’ assets which may have been accrued wholly or partially as a result of criminal activity.

Manning ran an eponymously named firm – K R Manning and Co. – where he offered legal services as a solicitor which mainly consisted of managing the affairs of those who were incapable of doing so themselves. One of the clients whose money he used to keep his business going was a Jersey-based charitable trust.

Pictured: The disgraced former lawyer has been ordered to surrender his pension by the Royal Court.

At his sentencing late last year, the Court heard that, in the face of financial struggles, alcoholism and spiralling mental health issues, Manning resorted to moving money out of his vulnerable clients’ accounts to “pay transactions or execute services” or “to shore up [his] ailing practice.” 

Manning was stripped of his legal credentials as a result of his offending.

He didn’t appear in Court to hear the outcome of the confiscation order, but his lawyer, Advocate Estelle Burns, attended on his behalf and extended her client’s apologies for his absence.

Advocate Lauren Taylor appeared for the Crown and asked the Court to impose a confiscation order for the “redeemable value of the defendant’s pension” to be paid to the Viscount. 

Advocate Burns said her client did not object to paying out his pension in this way which Express understands will be paid in one lump sum to the Viscount. 

Manning’s pension will then be paid into the Law Society Client Protection Fund which is a pot of money created by the Society to ensure that those who lose their money as a result of dishonest legal representation can be reimbursed.

Pictured: Manning was jailed for using client money to balance his books.

After Manning’s sentencing, CEO of the Law Society Neville Benbow said: “As noted by the Royal Court, the legal profession has created a fund to ensure that any individual who has suffered loss in relation to funds held on a client account as a result of dishonesty on the part of Mr Manning will be able to make a claim against the Client Protection Fund established by the Law Society and funded by its members. Applications from individuals who have suffered such a loss (or their legal representatives) can now be made to the Law Society.”

A previous order to confiscate property from Manning as a result of his offending was also discharged at the Court hearing. 

The Bailiff Sir William Bailhache was presiding and Jurats Averty, Christensen, Ramsden, Thomas and Pitman heard the case.

There being no objections, the Bailiff made the Court order for the former lawyer to surrender his pension as laid out by Advocate Taylor.