Pensioner suing convicted ‘fixer’ lawyer

A female pensioner, who was swindled out of 350 grand while seeking promotion in the civil service through a back-channel, is suing her former lawyer after he was sentenced to two years for defrauding the woman,

Earlier this week, a 53-year-old local attorney was sentenced to 28 months on fraud charges, after he was convicted for stealing €345,676 from his 74-year-old client, a woman described as a retired civil servant.

According to reports, the woman approached the lawyer in 2000, after her retirement, and asked him to help her get a promotion filed in her civil servant file.

The lawyer, who said he could “fix it” and told her she would first need to return her retirement bonus, convinced the woman to hand it over so that he could deposit it in a Finance Ministry special account. He also explained that he needed to get her rehired in the government before securing a promotion on-file for her.

The lawyer also managed to persuade his elderly client to hand over in cash her unemployment benefits at the end of every month between September 2000 and March 2001 as well as her pension from August 2000 through November 2014.

Fourteen years later, according to local media, the woman got wind of the scam and visited another lawyer who then contacted her former attorney. Her former lawyer insisted he had all the receipts showing the money was safe but failed to show proof while later he claimed the money had been deposited in a special account at the Central Bank.

The new lawyer, unconvinced by the man’s claims, urged the woman to file a complaint with police. A criminal court in Nicosia convicted the 53-year-old lawyer on fraud charges and sentenced him to 28 months in prison.

Reports said the woman is now suing the convicted lawyer in a civil court for 350 grand.