Licence revocation warranted after lawyer’s mortgage fraud, Appeal Court finds
TORONTO — A lawyer involved in mortgage fraud deserved to be kicked out of the profession as the provincial regulator had originally decided, Ontario’s top court ruled on Friday.
In its decision, the Appeal Court said it could not understand why the disbarment penalty against John Abbott had been overturned in the first place.
“There is, as yet, no precedent for a lower penalty than licence revocation for a lawyer who has knowingly participated in mortgage fraud,” the Appeal Court said.
Abbott, a Toronto lawyer since 1989, was found in 2014 to have engaged in mortgage fraud after a client complained to the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2007. The society’s hearing division found that Abbott had committed professional misconduct related to seven transactions that caused financial losses of about $625,000.