A solicitor who denies embezzling £120,000 from an OAP with dementia told a police interview he couldn’t have done it because they were “close friends”.
John Sinclair, a former partner at James and George Collie Solicitors in Aberdeen, is on trial facing allegations he removed a large sum of money from bank accounts belonging to 90-year-old client Dr Doreen Milne.
Sinclair, 69, had been granted power of attorney over the retired doctor’s finances following her dementia diagnosis in 2014.
On Monday, jurors at Aberdeen Sheriff Court watched video of Sinclair’s police interview that followed his arrest in February 2019.
As officers quizzed the former solicitor, he repeatedly insisted he was innocent and told them: “There’s no way I would have behaved in a dishonest manner towards her”.
‘Dr Milne wasn’t compos mentis all the time’
Sinclair instead said that he took the money as an agreed “loan” on funds that were stagnating in Dr Milne’s old savings accounts.
He told the interviewers he intended to repay the money at 5% above the base rate of interest.
Sinclair claimed last week that a handwritten agreement penned by him proved he could take the money – but the document was neither dated nor signed by Dr Milne.
He explained to the police that he would never have stolen from Dr Milne, who was a dementia patient in a nursing home, because they were “close friends”.
But he did admit to officers that he “didn’t seek her prior approval for this particular transaction”.
Sinclair said: “I didn’t sit down with Dr Milne and say, ‘this is what we’re going to do today’.
“The bottom line is that it was my decision to use the power of attorney in that way. Dr Milne wasn’t compos mentis all the time. At the end of the day, I used the power of attorney”.
When Sinclair gave evidence, he was again quizzed by his defence solicitor Ian Duguid KC about the loan and the high rate of interest.
“So you were loaning money to yourself, effectively?” Mr Duguid asked.
“Essentially,” Sinclair replied.
Mr Duguid continued: “What is the reason for giving [Dr Milne] 5% above the base rate?”
Sinclair responded: “I felt it was a reasonable rate, a rate that I could afford and it could be a help to her – I thought it would be useful”.
Pressed by Mr Duguid KC on whether he was acting dishonestly in giving himself a loan, Sinclair answered: “I certainly was not”.
‘There were no tracks to cover’
The solicitor is also accused of repeatedly deleting computer entries in an attempt to avoid detection.
It’s claimed that Sinclair approached a work colleague and asked him how to permanently delete an “event log” from his firm’s computer system.
Asked by Mr Duguid KC if he was attempting to “cover his tracks” by deleting files, Sinclair said: “There were no tracks to cover. There’s no question of trying to delete any event logs as you can’t delete an event long”.
Sinclair claimed he had been trying to delete his own personal tax files that he had saved on the James and George Collie Solicitors public computer drive, due to his own personal computer being faulty at the time.
The trial, before Sheriff Morag McLaughlin, continues.
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