A solicitor who let 'a lax regime' grow in his firm where client money was wrongly held and interest was sometimes not paid is to be banned from practising for six months.
The Court of Appeal yesterday refused to interfere with the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal decision against Wilson Yeung Lam in June.
'A professional disciplinary body is the body best fitted to assess the gravity of professional misconduct,' Mr Justice Brian Keith said.
Mr Yeung, who continued to practice pending the appeal, will be suspended from October 1.
A solicitor since 1992, Mr Yeung hired six full-time workers when he set up a 1,200-square-foot office in Connaught Road, Central, in October 1996. But none of the workers was suitably qualified, the court heard.
Within a year, the firm, Yeung & Co, Wilson L, had seven complaints filed against it in relation to various transactions.
Trouble started when cheques for $514,210 and $1,538,960 were deposited into the firm's accounts instead of the separate accounts of two clients, the court heard.