A lawyer was placed under house arrest today by the Carabinieri on charges of unfaithful practice of the legal profession, fraud and extortion against some of his clients.
The arrest was ordered by the investigating judge at the Court of Potenza, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, following investigations – which began after a complaint from one of the lawyer’s clients – which led to the belief that “the suspect would have engaged in similar unfaithful conduct towards other subjects”. The professional allegedly deceived clients “by making them believe that he had carried out activities – in reality never carried out – for which he had taken on a mandate, in order to obtain undue payments, also taking advantage of particular emotional, personal, family and legal situations” in which they found the people who had turned to him.
The victims, in addition to the undue payment of fees, would also have suffered “prejudice in the ongoing criminal or civil proceedings in which they were assisted by the lawyer”. Finally, in one case, the lawyer “would have put one of his clients faced with the false prospect of losing custody of his minor child, thus forcing the client – according to the accusation – to pay for professional services that were never completed which would once again be , therefore, were found to be undue”.
