A SOLICITOR who took more than £1.2m from a man disabled in a road crash has been jailed for 10 years.

Thomas McGoldrick, 59, of Faulkners Lane, Mobberley, who had law offices in London and Altrincham, took the money over a period of two-and-a-half-years until 2004.

The money had been awarded to Keith Anderson from Croydon as compensation after he was involved in a crash which left him in a wheelchair.

McGoldrick's company had helped get the compensation award which was paid into one of the company's client accounts.

But instead of looking after it so that Mr Anderson could use it to pay for his future care needs, McGoldrick took it to prop up his ailing business, pay off his debts and fund what was described in court as an "obscene" champagne lifestyle.

McGoldrick described the theft by drawing up "dummy bills" and forging a letter purporting to be from Mr Anderson saying that the disabled man was so pleased with his services that he wanted to give his lawyer half the compensation.

Sentencing McGoldrick at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court Mr Roger Thomas QC said McGoldrick had abused his client's trust over a long period of time.

He said that the lawyer had been in financial trouble for some time and would have continued to steal from Mr Anderson after 2004, but that the money had run out.

He said Mr Anderson had been left devastated when he had found out just before Christmas that there was nothing left leaving him unable to buy Christmas presents for his family and pay his household bills.

He said: "You are guilty of serious offending over a long period of time with the very worst breach of trust you can imagine from a professional man."

He added: "No credit is given for remorse or regret because you chose to contest this case and there was a six week trial in which you called into question the integrity and honesty of virtually every witness who came into the box including Mr Anderson."

McGoldrick had earlier been found guilty of 53 counts of false accounting; three counts of money laundering; two counts of obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and a single count of forgery.

The jury had been told that the lavish lifestyle of the insolvent lawyer included membership of Mere Golf Club, private school fees for his children, lavish holidays in the month before he was caught, and luxury cars.

The court was also told of his extravagant spending. He also used £80 a month to buy wild bird seed.

He was also found guilty of creating false company accounts in a bid to get a string of loans from banks and financial institutions.

He appeared in the dock today wearing jeans and a maroon fleece and red suede trainers.

He showed no emotion as he was taken down to the cells following sentence.