St Leonards district judge and two others jailed over fraud at legal firm

Left to right: Simon Kenny, Emma Coates and Stephen Hiseman. Picture courtesy of Sussex Police

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A solicitor, a legal executive and an associate of a law firm have been convicted following a nine-week trial at Southwark Crown Court and sentenced to more than 14 years in jail today (Friday, January 27).

The trio were found guilty of the embezzlement of almost £700,000 of client funds over a seven-year period.

Simon Kenny, 60, of Tudor Avenue, St Leonards, was sentenced to six years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud by abuse of his position.

The offences occurred between January 2007 and May 2011 while he was the principal solicitor at CK Solicitors as well as a district judge.

Kenny was convicted in respect of transferring client money to cover the money they had drawn from the Selsey-based firm.

Police said the extent of Kenny’s deceit was exposed by the tragic death of the firm’s accountant, Robert Foskett, who realised he had become unwittingly involved in the fraud – a realisation which troubled him so much that he ended up taking his own life, and naming Kenny in his suicide note.

Emma Coates, 47, of no fixed abode, but formally of Selsey, was sentenced to six years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud by abuse of position.

Between December 2008 and November 2011 when employed as a legal executive at CK Solicitors, Coates was responsible for making a series of transfers from the firm’s client accounts to her own.

Following an intervention by the Solicitor Regulatory Authority (SRA), CK Solicitors was closed in 2011.

Coates went on to establish Coates & Co and was able to defraud clients and steal funds coming into her possession when acting as an executor for Selsey residents.

This came to light during 2014 when the investigation was passed to officers of the Sussex Police Economic Crime Unit.