Swindle solicitor repays £400,000

A SHAMED solicitor jailed for embezzling more than £400,000 from a dead woman's estate has paid back the cash after receiving a loan from his brother-in-law.

Michael Karus was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for stealing the cash while acting as executor of the estate of Edith Hampton, 89, who died in 2003.

The 49-year-old was freed after serving just 12 months of the sentence, but confiscation proceedings were lodged against him in a bid to return the money to the will's proper beneficiary.

The confiscation case was withdrawn yesterday after Karus's lawyer, Michael Foster, said the beneficiary had received the cash nearly two years after Karus first pleaded guilty to the offence.

Mr Foster said Karus, who was not present in court because his elderly mother was "seriously ill", secured the funds after receiving a loan from his brother-in-law.

His brother-in-law had mortgaged several properties to come up with the money.

Last month, it was revealed that Karus had transferred his companies into the names of his sister and brother-in-law after being disqualified from acting as a company director in 2004 when one of his firms went bust with debts of 274,000.

Karus, of Gloucester Place in the New Town, boasted of being a "shark" who preyed on vulnerable victims and even named two of his firms GWS (Great White Shark) and Mako - after the shark - in celebration of his predatory style.

He was jailed in October 2009 after he admitted embezzling 413,052 while acting as executor of the estate of retired teacher Ms Hampton.

Ms Hampton, who never married and had no children, hired Karus in 1992 to draw up a will leaving her estate to the Cancer Research UK charity. She changed her will seven years later to leave the money to June Pirie, her cousin's daughter.

Following her death, Karus transferred the money into his personal account, using it to pay off his law firm's debts and credit card bills.

Cancer Research UK repeatedly contacted him to ask why the windfall had not been paid.

Karus finally told them a second will leaving the money to Mrs Pirie had emerged.

Suspicious charity bosses contacted police in 2007 after the second will was never registered and an investigation was launched.

Karus only registered the newer will in April 2008, three weeks after appearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on petition. The police obtained a copy and the handwriting confirmed Mrs Pirie as beneficiary.