A CROOKED solicitor guilty of a massive fraud, estimated at around £218,000, has been jailed for five years.

Stephen Ellis, 43, plundered the accounts of trusting clients in a desperate bid to keep afloat the failing Temple Heelis Commercial, for which he was the senior partner.

Among the victims of Ellis's fraud, between 2011 and 2013, were established customers such as Holker Estates, South Lakeland Parks and Russell Armer Ltd. A number of individuals were also caught up in his scam.

Ellis pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud. He also admitted one charge of false accounting and one of making false representations to creditors.

At Carlisle Crown Court today (THURS), he was sent to prison for five years by Judge Peter Hughes QC. He was also banned from being a director, or being concerned in the management, of any company for 10 years.

Judge Hughes told Ellis, formerly of Howgill, Sedbergh, he was guilty of 'out and out dishonesty'.

"In my judgement, the overall (financial) loss is only an aspect of your criminality relevant to sentence," said the judge.

Today’s sentence forms part of ‘Operation Sherry’, which began in April 2013 when Cumbria Police began investigating Ellis in relation to a number of false accounting and fraud offences.

Superintendent Rob O’Connor, who was the Senior Investigating Officer for this case, said: “This has been an extremely complex, lengthy and difficult case which has only now been finalised, two and a half years after it commenced.

“I would like to pay testament to my officers who were involved in this investigation, who have poured through thousands of pages of documents and computer records to prove this case and disrupt the fraudulent activities being committed by Ellis.

“Ellis may have been well intentioned in the beginning, but he was also an intelligent man and an experienced senior solicitor in a position of trust. He knew he had a clear duty to his clients but set about a series of frauds on his clients, finance companies, factoring agents and ultimately his creditors to obtain monies to keep TH Commercial LLP going.

“I would also like to thank those victims who have come forward and provided evidence in this case. Ellis lived a lavish lifestyle and drew significantly more from the company than others. The money he was using was not his, and today he is starting a prison sentence which shows that this type of activity will not be tolerated in Cumbria and that offenders will be investigated and brought to justice.”

It was stressed in court that Temple Heelis Commercial is a completely separate entity to the long established and well respected Temple Heelis Solicitors.

Temple Heelis Solicitors was not party to the court proceedings in any way.