WDS ASSOCIATES LEGAL SERVICES LTD “LOSES” £1.6 MILLION CLIENT FUNDS
Will Writers do not have the best reputation. Already back in 2010, BBC One aired a 30 min report titled “Wills – The Final Rip Off?” accompanied by this article.
A current case involving the Bristol based “law firm” WDS ASSOCIATES LEGAL SERVICES LTD shows that this bad reputation is not entirely undeserved. That firm, which has earned a large number of horrific client reviews on Google (see here) and YELP (see here), has managed to “lose” the staggering amount of 1.6 million pound of client funds.
The owner-directors Michael and Debra Diamond (see Companies House details here) blame it on a “long standing employee” of the firm, who has allegedly stolen a total of 2.1 million pounds, 1.6 of those client escrow funds.
However, many aspects appear dubious. In September 2021, Michael and Debra Diamond incorporated a new company with almost the identical name: WDS ASSOCIATES LS LTD, the same business nature, the identical directors and owners (namely themselves).
This new company took on all new business, quite obviously because the Diamonds had learned about the theft and knew that the days of the old WDS Ltd were numbered.
However, the clients and beneficiaries in the wills which were administered by WDS Ltd were informed in April 2023, one and a half years after the Diamonds had incorporated the new company! This shows where the priorities were: save the business, think about the clients later.
Because among the beneficiaries cheated out of their inheritances are four German nieces in the Frankfurt / Wurzburg area, the case is now also picked up by the German media.
The facts are reported in much detail on the law blog www.englischesrecht.de, an info hub on English law in German language (link)
For those interested in the full details of this case, a convenience translation of the German post into English is available for download here:
English version of post about WDS Ltd on German law blog
The German private client law firm Graf & Partners was established in 2003 and specialises in British-German probate matters, international estate planning and cross border civil litigation ever since. Contact German solicitor Bernhard Schmeilzl, LL.M. (Leicester) at +49 941 463 7070.
