A DISABLED man told of his "shock" today after being told he had lost £1 million, allegedly stolen by his solicitor.

Keith Anderson, 45, won a £1.8 million damages award after being left in a wheelchair following a car crash.

But his solicitor, Thomas McGoldrick, 59, is alleged to have forged a letter, purportedly from Mr Anderson, giving him half the cash as a "gift."

McGoldrick, from Mobberley, Cheshire, was drowning under a mountain of debt and stole the cash to prop up his ailing law firm, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester was told.

But today Mr Anderson, a father-of-three from Croydon, told the court he never wrote the letter and giving his money away would have been "crazy" because it was for his future care.

He was left paralysed from the chest down and quadriplegic, after the road accident in Croydon in November 1996.

The defendant's law firm, McGoldricks, handled the claim, winning the award in May 2001.

But in December 2004 Mr Anderson, who came to the UK from Jamaica in 1991, called the firm to get some of the money - only to be told it was gone by another solicitor.

Shocked

"She said there was not any money in Mr McGoldrick's account for me. I was shocked because I knew I should have in excess of £1 million in the account.

"I did not know what to do."

Days later a detective came to Mr Anderson with the letter, allegedly forged by McGoldrick, saying he wanted to give half his claim away and signed by Mr Anderson.

"He showed me a letter from Mr McGoldrick, that I gave him £900,000."

David Friesner, prosecuting, said, "Did you ever tell Mr McGoldrick you wanted him to have a share?"

"No I never said anything like that. It is crazy."

He was then asked about his signature being on the letter.

"The signature looks like my one, but I have never signed this letter or seen it before the police came."

McGoldrick, a solicitor since 1973, also allegedly falsified his firm's accounts, "grossly inflating profits", to get overdraft facilities and loans worth "millions" which he had no hope of repaying.

The alleged thefts came to light after the Law Society called in police and McGoldrick was arrested. Mr Anderson's losses were repaid by a lawyers compensation fund.

McGoldrick faces 53 counts of false accounting, two counts of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, one count of forgery and one count of money laundering between December 1999 and September 2004.

He denies all the charges. He claims the letter from Mr Anderson was not forged and any finance he obtained was on the strength of accounts submitted by his accountants.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.

Proceeding.