Oct 19, 2010
Lawyer struck off rolls
By Selina Lum
LAWYER Leong Wai Nam, who is serving a 6 1/2-year jail term for pocketing about $90,000 of clients' money, has been struck off the rolls on Tuesday. Disciplinary proceedings before the Court of Three Judges took less than five minutes as Leong, 42, was not contesting the Law Society's application for him to be disbarred.
In July last year, he was sentenced to three years and eight months' jail by a district court after he pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of cheating. Ten other charges were taken into consideration.
But his jail term was increased to 6 1/2 years after the prosecution appealed to the High Court, arguing that a stiff sentence was needed to stem the rising trend of lawyers misappropriating clients' money. Leong had a profit-sharing arrangement with a number of law firms.
But instead of forwarding the fees to the clients' account under the firm, Leong deposited them into his own bank account. In early 2008, he cheated a businessman of legal fees by letting him believe that he would act for him on two matters when he was no longer practising.