Advocate Mark Strachan swindled £50,000 of taxpayers' cash with 341 frauds against the Scottish Legal Aid Board ... Now he's back ... The shamed lawman is to give a speech about 'how to access funds' ... Legal aid-funded charity sells £25 tickets to hear him but make no mention of his criminal past

A CROOKED lawyer jailed for defrauding £50,000 of legal aid cash is making an astonishing comeback by lecturing the public about how to ‘access funds’.

Mark Strachan, 59, was sentenced to two years in 2014 after being found guilty of committing 341 separate frauds against the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).

Aberdeenshire-based charity Gordon Rural Action (GRA) is charging members of the public £25 to hear him speak in Inverurie in May.

Strachan’s talk is about power of attorney - the legal right to look after someone else’s personal and financial affairs.

Publicity for the event highlights key topics including how to ‘recognise alternative methods to gain access to money’.

The advert states: “Mark has a varied job history which, in addition to becoming a volunteer general advisor, involved being a practising solicitor and advocate.

“As such he has a mass of legal knowledge and is qualified in delivering first tier advice and assistance in power of attorney.”

But it make no mention of Strachan’s criminal past, described by a sheriff as ‘wilful, routine, organised and blatant’.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “It’s no wonder event organisers haven’t mentioned this individual’s most notorious accomplishment.

“It’s clearly inappropriate for an advocate with this chequered history to be offering advice on accessing funds."

GRA, which has 17 staff, provides free advice about benefits, debt, housing, employment and consumer issues.

Since leaving prison, Strachan has also volunteered one day each week advising members of the public.

Last year the charity received £94,106 of taxpayers’ cash from SLAB - the same organisation which Strachan defrauded.

Sandy Mitchell, a lawyer and GRA board member, said that Strachan had no involvement with SLAB-funded areas of their work.

He said: “He’s made no secret of his background at all. He came to us as a volunteer having served his sentence and offered his extensive knowledge to us.

“We don’t regard it as a big deal at all because his charitable work has no access to funds and it’s simply passing on knowledge to the public, under supervision.

“In his own words, he sees it as trying to give something back to the community. He’s a very well trained lawyer and we make very good use of that.”

Strachan made 341 fraudulent travel claims with 200 of those in one year.

Jurors rejected his defence that he had simply been muddled and found him guilty of fraud spanning a four-year period.

Jailing Strachan at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Kenneth Macliver said his ‘inexcusable crimes’ were ‘motivated by greed’.

He added: “The victim of this dishonesty is the public purse, a loss and potential loss of public money controlled by the Scottish Legal Aid Board for proper payment to solicitors and advocates engaged in representation of citizens in our courts.”

Strachan, who repaid the money, was later struck off by the Faculty of Advocates.

In 2006, he was charged by police and appeared in the same court for allegedly exposing himself at a 13-year-old boy in a shopping centre toilet.

He was also accused of taking off the boy’s trousers, touching his private parts and making indecent remarks but the case was dropped by the Crown Office the following year.

His forthcoming speech was publicised in a newsletter published by another charity, Aberdeen Voluntary Action whose head of development Keith Anderson said: “The newsletter is simply advertising a whole range things that are going on.

“We have to be careful about what we’re promoting but we’re accepting adverts and articles with an awful lot of good faith.”

An Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator spokesman said: “Having someone speak for a charity would not normally be a regulatory issue unless they were providing incorrect information.

“However, charities need to be aware of the reputational impact of using certain speakers and should always conduct the appropriate level of checks before using them. In this case, the charity have made us aware of the steps they have taken.”

A SLAB spokesman said: “Mark Strachan has no involvement with Gordon Rural Action’s in-court advice project that we fund.”

A version of this exclusive report first appeared in the Sunday Mail newspaper on March 11, 2018:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/crooked-lawyer-caged-50k-fraud-12165179