The solicitor whose investigation by Police Scotland prompted the Scottish National party MP Michelle Thomson to resign from the party last week was first reported to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) four years ago, it has emerged.
Opposition parties called for further clarification of the sequence of events regarding who knew of the allegations and when, after the Law Society of Scotland confirmed on Friday that it had submitted a report on Thomson’s solicitor Christopher Hales, who was struck off for possible mortgage fraud in 2014, to Soca – now the National Crime Agency – in 2011.
Thomson is alleged to have profited from vulnerable homeowners but has denied any wrongdoing. The former SNP business spokesperson, who took a prominent role in last year’s independence referendum campaign, has promised to cooperate fully with a police investigation into 13 property deals made on her or her company’s behalf by Hales.
In a statement, the Law Society of Scotland said that it was following its legal duty when it submitted a suspicious activity report (SAR) to Soca in October 2011 following its original inspection which resulted in Hales being suspended, prosecuted before the independent Scottish solicitors’ discipline tribunal and struck off as a solicitor in 2014.
The statement went on: “Until the existence of the police investigation came into the public domain, the Law Society considered it could not disclose the fact that a SAR had been submitted.
“Police Scotland has since confirmed that it has been instructed by the Crown Office to carry out an investigation into the property transactions involving Christopher Hales. Given this is now a matter of public record and after receiving independent legal advice, the society is able to confirm the submission of a report to Soca in 2011 and believes the disclosure of this fact to be in the public interest.”
The Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said the development raised “a new raft of questions”.
“Both the first minister and the lord advocate have said in the Scottish parliament that they knew nothing of this,” he said. “Yet here we see that the Law Society flagged this up to the police in 2011 – what has been happening for the last four years?”
Scottish Labour’s public services spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, said the latest revelations strengthened the case for an independent external inquiry into the Law Society’s role and called on the society to publish all related papers.
She said: “At the heart of this case are vulnerable families who have been taken advantage of. Securing justice for them must be the priority in all of this. It’s now nearly three weeks since questions were first publicly raised about the property deals of the SNP MP Michelle Thomson and yet there is still confusion about who knew what and when.
“We need full disclosure from all of the agencies and organisations involved. Without that full disclosure it will look to the public like the buck is being passed back and forth between the Law Society of Scotland, Police Scotland, the Crown Office and now the National Crime Agency.”
Baillie asked when Thomson had known that the case had been reported to a law enforcement agency and if and when she had disclosed the information to anybody during the referendum and general election campaign.
She said the Law Society of Scotland’s statement did not account for the year-long delay between Hales being struck off and it informing the Crown Office about the case.
Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, previously said she was completely unaware of the legal controversy until the allegations first emerged in the media. All SNP candidates have an obligation, which is made clear on their application form, to make the party aware of anything that may cause it embarrassment now or in the future. The party has the option to sanction candidates who fail to disclose information during vetting.
