Cat Maclean discusses threat of online fraud to solicitors in this year’s Annual Review

Solicitor advocate and partner at MBM Commercial, Cat Maclean discusses the case law surrounding online fraud in this year’s Scottish Legal News Annual Review.

Cat takes a forensic look at the English conveyancing cases of Purrunsing and Mishcon, both of which saw solicitors held liable after failing to detect fraudsters.

“Purrunsing (which is not being appealed) sent shock waves through the conveyancing community when the judgment was issued in 2016. This was compounded in January 2017 when another significant decision was issued, this time against the venerable firm of Mishcon De Reya, who were ordered to pay more than £1m to a claimant who had been the victim of an ID fraud, on the basis of breach of trust,” she writes.

Cat says: “Would either Purrunsing or Mishcon be followed in Scotland? There has as yet been no reported case covering such a situation. However, a wealth of guidance and information on cyber security now available to Scottish solicitors demonstrates that as a jurisdiction we are not immune from the problem.”

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