Disgraced lawyer gave businesses to his sister

A DISGRACED New Town solicitor, who was jailed for embezzling £400,000 from a pensioner's estate, transferred his companies into the names of his sister and brother-in-law, it emerged today.

Michael Karus, of Gloucester Place, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for embezzling the cash from the estate of an elderly client.

The 49-year-old was freed after serving just 12 months of the sentence, though it is understood he has to wear an electronic tag until the summer.

Karus was disqualified from acting as a company director in 2004 after one of his firms went bust with debts of 274,000.

But it has now emerged that the directorships of many of his firms were placed under the names of his sister, Angela McElvogue, 51, and her husband, Anthony McElvogue, 50, who live in Cheshire.

Most of the firms were transferred to the McElvogues' names during 2005 after Karus had been barred from acting as a director.

Karus was jailed in October 2009 after he admitted embezzling 413,052 while acting as executor of the estate of Edith Hampton, 89, who died in 2003.