A LAWYER who stole or defrauded almost £1million from clients at an East Lancashire solicitors has been jailed for 40 months.

Kimberley Bridge took advantage of bereaved families and businessmen ‘to keep Burnley-based SFN afloat’.

At the same time her sister Nicola Roach, a paralegal at the firm, stole around £140,000 to pay for designer goods such as a Victoria Beckham dress and Christian Louboutin shoes, Preston Crown Court was told.

Bridge and Roach’s victims were spread across Accrington, Clayton-le-Moors, Burnley and Pendle and former clients were left facing financial ruin and high levels of stress, the court heard.

Jailing Bridge yesterday, Judge Christopher Altham said she had ‘dealt a heavy blow’ to the reputation of her profession as a result of the six-year fraud.

One family, the Hoskers from Padiham, discovered Bridge had raided the £130,000 left to two daughters by their mother, Alison, who took her own life.

Pensioner Colin Barfoot, from Accrington, was left short to the tune of £50,000, after Bridge transferred money from his mother’s estate to an unrelated account. He told police he had suffered ‘extreme anxiety’ over the lost money.

And Andrew Siddall, who runs a catering business in Clayton-le-Moors, told the court how he was threatened with repossession when Bridge failed to carry out the remortgaging of a property for him.

Bridge, 44, of Cumbrian Way, Burnley, admitted theft, false accounting and fraud charges, involving £961,973.

Roach, 35, of Bramley Avenue, Burnley, who admitted theft involving £141,741, will be sentenced on January 8. She is suffering from a rare type of cancer and Judge Altham ordered further medical reports.

Andrew West, prosecuting, said that by the time SFN went bust, it owed £896,000, prompting an investigation by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority.

An inquiry found that Bridge had effectively moved money around between different clients to disguise shortfalls in certain accounts.

Mark Stuart, defending, said his client had been promoted to become a partner in SFN just three years after qualifying and had been left to tackle the firm’s grave financial problems on her own.

He told the court one of the other partners, Tracy Stansfield, had sought to leave the firm, and another, John McNabb, was only interested in carrying out matrimonial work and was away from the office.

Mr Stuart said not only had SFN been forced to shrink the size of its overdraft, and was repaying loans at the rate of £21,000 per month despite only generating £50,000, it was still meeting a large ‘goodwill’ payment to a former partner every year.

He said: “She was seeking to cover up one mistake with a series of really disastrous decisions. She was looking to keep the staff, who had worked there for some time, in employment.”

The court heard one of Roach’s best friends, Susan Harrison from Clitheroe, found she had failed to pay the stamp duty on a house transaction, for which the Inland Revenue was still demanding repayment plus penalty charges.

Mrs Harrison said Roach often sported the latest high-fashion dresses, shoes and handbags and on one occasion the paralegal took delivery of a Victoria Beckham dress worth £1,800.

The court heard that when Roach’s home was raided, police found dozens of pairs of Louboutin shoes, Tag Heuer watches worth up to £800 and Chanel and Dior accessories.

Some of the victims have been compensated by the Solicitors Indemnity Fund but others were still waiting for claims to be finalised, the court heard.

Speaking after the case Det Sgt Nick Hodgeson said: “Bridge has shown little empathy for her actions after preying on her victims - some of which were extremely vulnerable - whilst in a position of trust.

“In total just short of £1million was stolen over the period of a few years by taking money deposited by clients mainly for conveyancing services and using it to run the business.

“The public rightly expect that solicitors and those in positions of trust should uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity.”