Government faces inquiry call over miners' millions paid to solicitor

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne is coming under pressure to hold an inquiry into how millions of pounds were handed over to a Glasgow lawyer in compensation for former miners, with no checks made that he was passing the money on to his clients.

Glenrothes Labour MP Lindsay Roy is pushing for a probe into cases handled by Paul McConville, a personal injuries specialist who is being investigated by the Law Society of Scotland.

He wants to know what happened to more than 2 million given to Mr McConville by the Coal Liabilities Unit, linked to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), for 1,704 cases represented by the lawyer.

The MP wants the government to investigate why no attempt was made by the unit to track the payments and ensure they were passed on. He is also demanding to know why more than a further 2m was paid in fees to Mr McConville without any attempt to find out whether he had paid the compensation to his clients.

The money was part of a fund paid out to coal miners for diseases and industrial health problems caused by a lack of protection from the former British Coal Board.

Mr McConville, who used to operate from offices in Hope Street, Glasgow, was made bankrupt earlier this year as a result of action taken by HM Revenue and Customs.

He was approached at his Hamilton address by The Scotsman's sister paper Scotland on Sunday but has so far not answered questions on what happened to the money.

One of his clients was Helen Baxter, 80, of Buckhaven in Fife, whose case was taken up by Mr Roy. Mr McConville was supposed to pass on more than 9,000 compensation for the ill-health of her late father-in-law, who had emphysema and whom she nursed until he died in 1981.

Mrs Baxter said: "I was calling him for months, but he was never there. He was always in court or on the phone. There was always an excuse."

Mr Roy said it was unknown how many of Mr McConville's 1,704 clients had not been paid by him.

He said: "We must have a full inquiry into this. It is a scandal that so much taxpayers' money was paid out to this man and other lawyers with no attempt to track the money. The problem is that we do not know if any of this money made its way to McConville's clients."

Mr McConville was suspended by the Law Society as a result of being made bankrupt, and a spokeswoman said: "We have received a number of complaints about his conduct and the inquiries are still ongoing."

However, the Law Society's insurer has already paid out compensation to former clients of Mr McConville for his failure to handle their cases properly.

The spokeswoman added that, if found guilty, McConville could face being struck off.

The government is resisting holding an inquiry into the case. A DECC spokesman said: "Whilst the Secretary of State is sympathetic to the individual claimants affected by the issues raised, the department's position remains that we have met our obligations in relation to claimants.

"As the defendant is in legal proceedings, it is not appropriate for us to instigate any inquiry into the conduct of solicitors chosen by claimants themselves to represent them.

"That said, we will continue to offer assistance to the Law Society of Scotland over any inquiries it makes. We will also continue to co-operate with the police should they continue their inquiries."

He added that issues such as tracking money and making sure lawyers fulfilled their obligations was a matter for the "appropriate authorities who would look after that sort of thing".

Mr Roy has received backing for his inquiry call from Willie Rennie, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, who also handled the cases of Mr McConville's former clients, and SNP Central Fife MSP Tricia Marwick.