{"id":292253,"date":"2023-10-02T14:33:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T19:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=292253"},"modified":"2023-10-02T21:09:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T02:09:16","slug":"brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/","title":{"rendered":"Brit Lawyer Jailed for Embezzling \u00a31.85M Chasing Fake Lottery Jackpot"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top British lawyer who embezzled \u00a31.85 million from his clients’ accounts to give to lottery fraudsters<\/a> has been sentenced to four years in prison.<\/p>\n

\"Hugh
Hugh Lansdell, seen above, was a senior partner in a law firm until he was found to have plundered clients\u2019 money to chase a bogus lottery dream. (Image: Daily Mail<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hugh Lansdell, 74, pleaded guilty in September to one count of fraud by abuse of position after admitting to stealing money between 2015 and 2017.<\/p>\n

The devout Christian earlier received a letter informing him that he had won \u00a3825,000 on the Spanish Lottery<\/a> but would need to make a \u00a341K tax payment to unlock the jackpot because he was not a resident of Spain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lansdell incredibly bought the ruse, believing that \u201cGod had answered his prayers.\u201d And his credulity continued as the \u201cprize money\u201d increased over time, and tax demands escalated. Ultimately, he believed he would receive \u00a310 million.<\/p>\n

Religious Fervor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lansdell, of Norwich, England, siphoned \u00a31.5 million from clients of Hansells. At this law firm, he was a senior partner and another \u00a3350K from two charitable organizations, of which he was a trustee.<\/p>\n

A psychological report presented to the court suggested that Lansdell was suffering from a kind of “mental illness.”<\/p>\n

He appears to have developed an overvalued belief in both the power of prayer and the guidance of God, which then informed his interpretation of unfolding events and his decision making,\u201d <\/strong>the report stated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it would seem that the overvalued belief in the guidance of God resulted in an inability to think rationally about the unfolding situation and led him to make some very serious errors of judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Broken Man\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

His defense attorney, Will Carter, described his client as a \u201cbroken man,\u201d having lost \u201calmost everything, including his wife. He now lives on his own and has declared bankruptcy. He was disbarred in 2019.<\/p>\n

Carter said Lansdell had wanted to give the money to his local church for renovations and establish a hostel in Norwich. He was \u201cblinded by faith\u201d and not greed, and the case \u201ccould not be more tragic,\u201d Carter added.<\/p>\n

But when Hansells discovered the money was missing and confronted Lansdell, he lied and made numerous excuses about investing the money elsewhere before finally admitting to the lottery scheme.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter falling victim to a scam himself, Hugh Lansdell exploited his significant position of trust as a senior partner to take an extraordinary amount of money from clients,\u201d said Emma Beazley, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CPS is committed to working with police to bring fraudulent offenders to justice and will be pursuing confiscation proceedings in this case,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A top British lawyer who embezzled \u00a31.85 million from his clients’ accounts to give to lottery fraudsters has been sentenced to four years in prison. Hugh Lansdell, 74, pleaded guilty in September to one count of fraud by abuse of position after admitting to stealing money between 2015 and 2017. The devout Christian earlier received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":292266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60,13699],"tags":[88191,88190,88192],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrit Lawyer Stole \u00a31.85M Chasing Fake Lottery Jackpot, Gets Prison<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawyer Hugh Lansdell believed he would win \u00a310 million on the Spanish Lottery but he had to steal \u00a31.85M from clients to get it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brit Lawyer Stole \u00a31.85M Chasing Fake Lottery Jackpot, Gets Prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawyer Hugh Lansdell believed he would win \u00a310 million on the Spanish Lottery but he had to steal \u00a31.85M from clients to get it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-02T19:33:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-03T02:09:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hugh.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"686\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/\",\"name\":\"Brit Lawyer Stole \u00a31.85M Chasing Fake Lottery Jackpot, Gets Prison\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hugh.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-02T19:33:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-03T02:09:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Lawyer Hugh Lansdell believed he would win \u00a310 million on the Spanish Lottery but he had to steal \u00a31.85M from clients to get it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/brit-lawyer-jailed-for-embezzling-1-85m-chasing-fake-lottery-jackpot\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hugh.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Hugh.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":686,\"caption\":\"Hugh Lansdell was a senior partner in a law firm until he was found to have plundered clients\u2019 money to chase a bogus lottery dream. 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