A FORMER solicitor's clerk who worked for a prominent East Lancashire firm is due to appear in court on charges of theft and false accounting.

Legal executive Louis Rebello, 46, will appear before Lancaster magistrates on November 15 to answer the charges, which relate to his time as a clerk at Forbes and Partners Solicitors firm in Northgate, Blackburn.

Rebello, lives in a farmhouse in School Lane, Guide, left the firm a year ago after the alleged offences were said to have been committed. He was charged with ten counts of false accounting and ten counts of theft by police in April.

A spokesman for Forbes confirmed that Rebello had worked for them as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives and was at the top of the scale for legal clerks.

They said Rebello had originally worked for the firm as an articled clerk before leaving to work for the pre-cursor of the Crown Prosecution Service in the Crown Courts.

He later returned to Forbes and Partners to work in their civil department.

The alleged offences of theft and false accounting are believed to relate to a number of clients at the firm and are said to amount to thousands of pounds.