Law Society-v-David Richard Blair Lyons & Duncan Hugh Drummond

Edinburgh 14 October 2015. The Tribunal having considered the Complaint dated 9 April 2015 at the instance of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland against David Richard Blair Lyons, residing at Greenways, Pacemuir Road, Kilmalcolm (“the First Respondent”) and Duncan Hugh Drummond, residing at Flat 1/2, 80 Kirkcaldy Road, Pollockshields, Glasgow (“the Second Respondent”); Find the First Respondent guilty of professional misconduct in respect of his failure to respond to correspondence from the Complainers, his failure to obtemper statutory notices, his taking of grossly excessive fees from executry estates, his failure to comply with the requirements of the Accounts Rules, his taking of fees from the sale proceeds of a property to which he was not entitled, his failure to obtemper letters of obligation, his taking of fees without rendering fee notes, and his embezzlement of the sum of £1,040,000 from the Bank of Ireland; Find the Second Respondent guilty of professional misconduct in respect of his taking of grossly excessive fees from executry estates, his taking of fees without rendering fee notes, his failure to comply with the requirements of the Accounts Rules and his failure to supervise his firm’s assistant, in breach of the undertaking given by him to the Complainers; Order that the name of the First Respondent be Struck Off the Roll of Solicitors in Scotland; Order that the name of the Second Respondent be Struck Off the Roll of Solicitors in Scotland; Find the Respondents jointly and severally liable in the expenses of the Complainers and of the Tribunal including expenses of the Clerk, chargeable on a time and line basis as the same may be taxed by the Auditor of the Court of Session on an agent and client, client paying basis in terms of Chapter Three of the last published Law Society’s Table of Fees for general business with a unit rate of £14.00; and Direct that publicity will be given to this decision and that this publicity should include the names of the First and Second Respondents and may but has no need to include the names of anyone other than the First and Second Respondents.

Nicholas Whyte

Vice Chairman