Edgar Stephen Thomas of Llangwm jailed for six years

Edgar Stephen Thomas (known as Stephen), aged 58, charged one client at the rate of £20,000 a week without doing any work at all.

Another was charged at £12,000 a week and went on to lose a total of £100,000.

Thomas, of Stephen's Green, Deerland Road, Llangwm, admitted 23 offences of fraud and theft, which stopped only when his firm of Steve Thomas and Co was closed down by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

Jim Davis, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court that Thomas got away with the frauds by deducting monies from the estates of deceased people without telling the beneficiaries.

"He grossly overcharged and then deducted the payments directly from the estates of deceased people," he said.

"He helped himself without telling them what he was doing."

The overcharging began in 2005 when he was asked to handle the estate of Richard James Rogers. He charged the estate £41,800 plus VAT but internal documents showed that as the work decreased his bills increased.

Thomas agreed overcharging that estate by £12,000.

Thomas went on to plunder many more accounts.

The most outrageous example, said Mr Davies, related to the estate of Audrey Williams, who died in 2013.

Thomas charged £127,250 plus VAT, sometimes raising - but not posting - two invoices a day. He agreed he had overcharged by £100,000.

Mr Davis said Thomas' offending did not stop there. His firm was hired by Vaughan's Radio, an electrical store in Haverfordwest, to handle the purchase of a business in Aberystwyth.

Thomas simply kept for himself £50,000 of the purchase price.

Mr Davis said Thomas had worked for Eaton Evans in Haverfordwest, rising to becoming a partner, before leaving to form his own firm in 2005.

His accounts had to be audited and as a result the SRA were alerted to fears that he was overcharging.

A detailed forensic examination of his accounts was carried out and the fears were confirmed, along with the discovery of a shortfall in his client's accounts of £144,326.

There was then an administrative error at the SRA and the initial report was not acted upon until June, 2014, when a second financial investigation revealed more fraud and he was later struck off.

In February 2015 Thomas was declared bankrupt.

Mr Davis said the SRA had reimbursed those who had lost because of Thomas' fraudulent behaviour, but there remained the question of costs and whether he could be made to repay any of the money.

An investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act is underway.

Thomas' barrister, Ian Ibrahim, said his client was now broke and all the money had gone on keeping his business afloat.

"His fall from a high place has been dramatic. His remorse is complete and utterly without qualification.

"He has lost everything and knows that he will go to jail today."

Judge Keith Thomas said those who worked in the legal profession had to demonstrate the highest level of integrity because the public put trust in them, sometimes at the most stressful times of their life.

"Your victims have described your behaviour as disgusting and despicable.

"You were struck off in 2016 and have had to wait a long time for the process to be complete, but that is partly because you were not willing to admit the extent of your offending," he added.

The estates plundered by Edgar Stephen Thomas, and the losses to the beneficiaries, were those of:

Richard James Rogers, £12,000

Doreen Agnes Lewis, £70,000

John Arran, £24,325

Elizabeth James, £40,000

Betty Evans, £45,000

Emily Stephens, £30,030

Hugh Wilson, £43,590

William John Morris, £25,000

Leslie Evans, £210,000

Christina Owens, £84,000

Winona Phillips, £9,000

Hannah Margaret Harries, £108,000

Pamela Price, £95,000

Audrey Williams, £100,000

Jeffrey Donald James, £17,400

Mairwen Rhiannon Williams, £25,000.