Former Mishcons partner jailed for role in €22m loan scam

Former Mishcon de Reya property partner Kevin Steele has been sentenced to five and a half years in jail after being found guilty of forgery and fraud offences in a €22m (£18.5m) loan scam.

Steele was sentenced by Mr Justice Wood at Southwark Crown Court earlier today (27 January) alongside his former client, property developer Michael Shephard, who has been sentenced to six years and three months in jail. Shephard has also been disqualified from acting as a company director for 15 years.

A third defendant Mark Pattinson, an employee of Shephard, was handed an 18-month jail sentence on 9 January this year after pleading guilty before trial.

The trio were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud after making a false representation to Zurich's EFG Bank that a total of £76m held in accounts at Bank Julius Baer in Guernsey was available to be used as a security for a loan of €22m for Shephard.

The defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to use false instruments - letters purporting to originate from Bank Julius Baer - with the intention of inducing third parties to accept them as genuine.
Steele was also prosecuted for abusing his position as a partner at Mishcons.

The case has been pursued by the Serious Fraud Office since November 2008, with the trio charged in November 2009. Steele was removed from Mishcons' partnership in September 2008 when the matter was referred to the police and Solicitors Regulation Authority.

• Related: Ex-Mishcons partner convicted of forgery and fraud in €22m loan case