Son of disgraced crooked lawyer given three months to repay money she gave to him during £4m fraud

The son of a disgraced lawyer who received almost £1million of his mother's ill-gotten gains has been ordered to repay a chunk of the cash within three months.

Edward Box received the money from Linda Box, a former solicitor jailed in 2017 for defrauding millions of pounds from clients to fund a lavish lifestyle.

He appeared at Leeds Crown Court where an order was put in place under the Proceeds of Crime Act, to help recover the cash given to him by his mother.

Linda Box, whose address at the time of her sentencing was Halifax Road, Dewsbury, was jailed for seven years in 2017 after her offending came to light.

A senior partner at the Wakefield law firm, Dixon, Coles and Gill, she used her position to defraud clients over a 12-year period.

It is estimated that she obtained more than £4 million in that time, money which she spent on luxury items including expensive wine collections, designer clothes, houses, cars and family holidays.

Neither Edward nor any of the Box family members were involved with her criminal activities and a confiscation order was put in place to help repay the money she stole.

The order against Mr Box was postponed until June 3 after the court was told Mr Box had been attempting to re-mortgage his home.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) argued he had not done enough to help the recovery of the money after several adjourned hearings.

For the CPS, Paul Jarvis asked him: "Do you understand that you spent nearly £1 million that your mother obtained by fraud? It is what's known as a tainted gift.

"Your mother has to pay back a very large confiscation order.

"Did it not cross your mind to claw some of it back to help pay off the order?"

Mr Box said that he had done everything he had been told by his solicitors.

But Judge Penelope Belcher said Mr Box understood that losing his family home to pay back the money was possible, but did not take it seriously enough.

The family home in Overton is thought to be worth around £350,000.

The judge said: "I understand that no family would want their home sold from under them.

"I have sympathy for the family situation, but you should have faced the reality some time ago.

"To an extent, you have buried your head in the sand.

"It's appropriate to give you the opportunity to see if you can secure that re-mortgage with a view to paying the money to the CPS.

"I will not be remotely sympathetic if there's any further delay in those three months. It's time you faced up to the reality of the situation.

"If you do not, the family home will simply be repossessed."