Tribunal finds director ignored duties as long as the money came in
A law firm director failed to notice his employee was misappropriating funds and misled regulators about the firm holding client money, a tribunal has found.James O’Connor, sole director of Preston-based Barrington Lewis Law Ltd, also told indemnity insurers and the Solicitors Regulation Authority that his firm practised only personal injury work, when in fact it was involved in a number of other areas. He was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal following a three-day hearing in April.In addition to dishonesty, O’Connor also admitted failing to prevent one of the firm’s solicitors from misappropriating £140,000 from monies held in the client account. The solicitor in question, Giles Guy Robertson, was struck off at the same hearing.The tribunal heard that the firm, which operated in Lancashire and Bedfordshire, did not submit accountants’ reports to the SRA for seven consecutive years before it was shut down by the regulator in 2016.Supervision of funds by O’Connor, a solicitor for 22 years, was said by the SRA to be ‘wholly lacking’. The tribunal found he left branch offices ‘to their own devices’ as long as he received payment from them, and had no control over the staff.‘He left them to carry out work with little if any supervision,’ said the tribunal. ‘Whilst he undertook supervision of some files, and made some visits to the offices, he paid very little attention to the finances of the subsidiary offices. His main concern was that he received monies from those offices each month.’O’Connor denied acting dishonestly in his dealings with insurers and regulators, but the tribunal found he ‘knowingly and deliberately’ included incorrect and information on forms submitted to both.In his mitigation, O’Connor stated he had been a victim of a ‘clever and consummate lier’ in Robertson. The SRA made no allegation of missing monies from any of the other offices he oversaw, and could cite no client complaints about the standard and conduct of work.Robertson, a solicitor for almost six years, did not appear at the hearing and consented to being struck off the roll. The tribunal said he was motivated by financial gain and had breached the trust placed in him to safeguard client monies.The tribunal imposed joint costs of almost £57,000, with Robertson ordered to pay an extra £616.
Australia: Toll opened an A$20m freight terminal at Townsville in early May. A joint venture of Toll and Pacific National began running 1067mm gauge freight services from Brisbane to Cairns in March.Brazil: Portugese construction firm Somague Engenharia has completed a feasibility study for a US$570m rail link between São Paulo and the regional airport at Campinas, 90 km away.Canada: On May 20 the Canadian Transportation Agency revoked Prairie Alliance for the Future’s railway operating licence. PAFF was unable to afford liability insurance after poor harvests hit traffic on the 300 km of grain branches it leased from CN.Chile: EFE has taken delivery of the second of five Class 444 EMUs purchased for US$3·5m from Renfe for the Santiago – Chill
ROBEL: At this year’s InnoTrans, Robel will introduce its 34.02 clipping machine with a petrol engine and Fastclip and e–clip fastening modules.The clipping machine can be used universally, according to the company, and it is designed to be transported more easily, be simpler to operate and offer enhanced ergonomic qualities. The 34.02 clipping machine consists of three basic components: a work module, transverse travelling gear and powerpack. Offering a total weight of between 60 kg and 80 kg, the 34.02 provides a weight saving of at least 60 kg compared to previous designs. The 34.02’s standard adaptor for work with Pandrol’s Fastclip and e-clip will be shown in Berlin, but adaptors for FCX and FE fastenings are also being prepared. A Honda GX200petrol powerpack with an air-cooled four-stroke engine rated at 4·1 kW at 3 600 rev/min will be used for the display clipping machine, but an electric unit with a 400 V 50 Hz motor is also available. The operator can also switch between a combustion engine and an electric motor to allow working in a sensitive environment, such as a residential area or tunnel
The Cavs defeated the Atlanta Hawks 104-93 in Game 1 on Monday night at Quicken Loans Arena.Following the game, Dennis Schroder, who scored a career-high 27 points, joined Kent Bazemore on the stage, representing the Hawks.LeBron James and Tristan Thompson took to the podium to represent the Cavs. Matt Medley Matt Medley is co-editor at NEO Sports Insiders, covers the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians and high school sports in Northeast Ohio.Follow @MedleyHoops on Twitter for live updates from games.
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Share Register your team for the Publix youth soccer team of the week PENSACOLA, Fla. – Youth soccer teams in the Pensacola area now have a chance to be selected the Publix Youth Soccer Team of the Week. Teams can register online to win a $100 gift card to Publix and free admission to UWF soccer games. The winning team will also have the opportunity to walk with the team during pregame introductions, meet the team after the game for autographs, and play on the field during halftime.To sign up, visit the promotions page on www.GoArgos.com or visit the direct link. For more information, contact John Corwin at jcorwin@uwf.edu. Print Friendly Version
The fourth match featured UWF’s top player Chandler Blanchet and the Wildcats’ Alistair Docherty. Blanchet trailed by two at the turn before he chipped in for eagle on No. 10 and knotted the match three holes later when Docherty double-bogeyed the 13th. That swing brought the overall match into a dead heat at 2-2-1 at the time, but Docherty played 1-under the rest of the way as the Argos never were able to take control of the contest. Blanchet finished with a 71, three back of Docherty’s 68. Freshman Bryce Geraghty struggled to find his groove for much of the day, posting an 80. Chico’s Matt Hutchins claimed the team point with a 68 for a 12-shot cushion. On Friday, UWF fell behind in three matches early but battled back and evened up the score at 2-2-1 with 2-4 four holes remaining. But Chico State showed its maturity with three seniors and pulled away for the victory. The Argonauts were making their first appearance in the medal match play setup, which started in 2011 at the D2 men’s level. It was also the team’s 10th appearance in the NCAA Championship and second in the last four years. In the first match of the day, senior Talin Rajendranath shot a 74 and was defeated by five shots by Lee Gearhart’s 69. The duo were tied after 10 holes before Gearhart pulled ahead with four-consecutive birdies. *** NCAA MEDAL/MATCH PLAY RESULTS ***DENVER – A day after completing a thrilling comeback to advance into the medal match play portion of the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championships, fourth-ranked UWF was unable to continue the magic on Friday, falling to second-ranked Chico State, 3-1-1, in the quarterfinal round at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.
Freshman Jacob Huizinga, who was coming off a 65 on Thursday, played well before finishing at 73. He tied his playing partner Justin Wiles. Huizinga held a 2-stroke lead after 12 holes but dropped into a tied following a double-bogey at the 13th. Wiles led by a shot heading into the last hole but Huizinga birdied to pull the match all square. The lone point for UWF came in the final pairing where sophomore Henry Westmoreland IV shot 69 and won his match by three shots. He had his short game working, chipping in for birdie on the third and eighth holes, while finishing the round with a 30-foot birdie on No. 18. Chico State advances to face Florida Southern in the semifinals. — GoArgos.com –Print Friendly Version
Related TopicsClevelandCleveland IndiansIndiansMLBShane BieberSt.Louis Cardinals ST. LOUIS– The Cleveland Indians struck early scoring and never looked back, topping the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 and avoiding a sweepThe Tribe put up four of their five runs in the first three innings. For the first time in this series, Cleveland outhit St. Louis, 9-6.The team has off tomorrow but will head to Oakland for a three-game set against the A’s that begins on Friday. Until then, here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s win.1. Bieber feverShane Bieber continued to impress on Monday, earning his third career Major League win.Bieber went six innings, giving up six hits and one earned run while striking out five. This was his first Major League start where he didn’t fan at least six batters. But nevertheless, the rookie used his slider to bait the Cardinals into swinging low out of the zone and then caught them looking with his four-seamer.Making things even sweeter on Wednesday was the fact that Bieber recorded his first Major League hit in his first start in a National League ballpark.In his second career plate appearance, Bieber doubled to left. He ended the evening going 1-for-3 from the plate with two strikeouts. He’s the 34th Indians pitcher to record a hit in his first game as a batter. Ashley Bastock 2. Getting to Flaherty earlyThe Indians put up four runs on starting pitcher Jack Flaherty through the first three innings, giving themselves an early 4-0 lead.In the second frame, Edwin Encarnacion and Lonnie Chisenhall both hit solo home runs to make the Tribe’s lead 2-0. In the third inning, Chisenhall struck again driving in a run with a force out. Jason Kipnis followed him up with an RBI single, and just like that, the Tribe had a four-run cushion.Flaherty went four innings, giving up those four earned runs on six hits. Not too shabby, considering Flaherty didn’t allow more than one run in each of his previous three starts.3. Ramirez’s streak continuesNormally when we are talking about a streak from Ramirez, we mean Jose; however, today’s notable streak belongs to Tribe reliever Neil Ramirez.After pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings on Wednesday night, the latter Ramirez extended his scoreless streak to a whopping 14 games through 13 1/3 innings. His streak remains the longest by a Tribe reliever this year, in both games and innings. Ashley is a former basketball player who covers the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indians and high school sports for NEO Sports Insiders. She also covers the Cavs for SB Nation’s Fear The Sword. Ashley is a 2015 graduate of John Carroll University and previously worked in political journalism. You can follow her on Twitter @AshleyBastock42
IN FIVE EASY PIECES WITH TAKE 5 GET THE BEST OF THE JAPAN TIMES The occasion — a crucial World Cup game. The venue — National Stadium, Tokyo. The teams — Japan and South Korea. The result — a resounding win for Japan.Unfortunately for Monsieur Troussier and his “Boys in Blue” and their millions of fans, this was not the round ball version of the tournament but a qualifying game for the oval ball version.
However, for the 25,000 fans who graced the former Olympic Stadium, the 90-24 win was just as important and just as impressive as anything the national soccer team has achieved.The result puts Japan in the driver’s seat of the Asian qualifying group (that also includes Chinese Taipei) and providing it can continue in the same vein Japan should find itself in Group B along with France, Scotland, the winners of the Oceania Group (Fiji, Tonga or Samoa) and a team from a Repechage Group (most likely Uruguay) when the 2003 Rugby World Cup gets underway in Australia in October 2003.“An outstanding spectacle and, despite the scoreline, a very competitive game,” was how Rugby World Cup Ltd. match commissioner Peter Duncan described the day’s proceedings. “I am very proud to be associated with the game after a match like that.”Australian international referee Stuart Dickinson said he had goose bumps at the end of the game. “The atmosphere was superb. It was a fantastic experience being out in the middle today. It may not have been as structured as Super 12 rugby or the rugby played by the major nations but it was a great game, very fast and can only do the sport some good.”Japan eventually scored 13 tries to Korea’s four but the opening 25 minutes were far from easy for the “Cherry Blossoms.”Korea at one stage lead 24-17 thanks in part to three superb tries by flying wing Lee Jin Wook and some great counter-attacking from fullback Yong Hwan Myung.“We need to ask ourselves a few questions about our defense when chasing kicks,” said Japan fly half Andy Miller. “And we need to be more aggressive from the start. We knew the Koreans would come out fired out and we wanted to weather the storm and then impose ourselves.” If Japan can eliminate the poor starts that have blighted their recent games the future looks promising. “The Japan team has made huge progress in the last year,” said Ross Cooper, a former technical coach with the Japan Rugby Football Union and now working as a discipline commissioner for RWC Ltd. “Now that all the players have been made available by the companies there is no reason why they cannot take the next step and start beating the likes of Fiji and Samoa an a regular basis,” he added.Japan’s early points came from a penalty by Toru Kurihara before Miller started to work his magic. A delayed pass from the Kobe Steel fly half put Hirotoki Onozawa away for a try before Miller, combined with Steelers teammates Yukio Motoki and Daisuke Ohata for the latter to show his pace and score.Korea’s Kim Se Woong scored in the 27th minute to give his team a 24-17 lead but that was the last score from the visitors. Miller scored a superb individual try in the 29th minute sidestepping off both feet to weave a path through the Korean defense before almost repeating the trick three minutes later. However the Kiwi was alert enough to keep the ball alive in the tackle and Ohata was on hand to score his second.Straight from the restart Yuya Saito broke down the blindside and Ohata showed his blinding pace to seal his hat trick and put Japan 38-24 ahead. However, Miller wasn’t done and after the pack had had four or five attempts at rumbling over from a lineout five meters out Yuji Sonoda put up a short pop pass for Miller to stroll over for his second try of the day. Kurihara added his sixth-straight conversion and Japan went into the break 45-24 up.“The first half was a little bit like a boxing fight,” was how captain Takuro Miuchi described the first 40 minutes. “Every time one team scored the other counterpunched. But by the second half everyone knew their roles and we played very well.”Indeed, in the second half Japan outscored its luckless opponents 45-0 as coach Shogo Mukai’s team played some superb 15-man rugby with forwards and back interlinking at pace and blowing their opponents away.Kurihara opened the scoring in the 44th minute taking a short pop pass from Sonoda who, along with Miller, was at the heart of Japan’s offense. Three minutes later the same two players attacked the blindside, following a good midfield break by Motoki, to put away Masaaki Sakata for Japan’s eighth try.By this stage the Koreans seemed to have lost heart and started to miss a number of tackles though to their credit they still kept attacking whenever they got their hands on the ball forcing Japan into some resolute defense. One possible cause of concern for Mukai would be the number of times his team was penalized at ruck situations and eventually referee Dickinson was forced to send Shin Hasegawa to the sin bin for persistent handling in the ruck.Saito scored Japan’s ninth following great interplay between forwards and backs before Sonoda eventually got a try his hard work deserved — Miller showing all his experience slowing down and making the ball available in the tackle. Kurihara and Onozawa then produced a try from nothing using their speed to work the former in from 80 meters out.The final two tries belonged to Miller (another individual effort) and Ohata, with Kurihara adding the extras for 35 points on the day.A shell-shocked Korean coach An Deog Gyun said that his team had “anticipated the Japanese tactics but we were too slow especially in the second half. Perhaps our schedule was too tough as we were not in the best condition.”Mukai, on the other hand, was delighted. “We were a bit shocked at first by the Korean speed and counter-attack but our back three showed their pace and Miller had an outstanding game distributing the ball.”Next up for Japan is Chinese Taipei at the National Stadium on July 6 before the “Cherry Blossoms” travel to Seoul to play South Korea on July 14. With all being well the game scheduled for July 21 in Taipei will be nothing more than a formality with Japan having already secured its berth at the 2003 World Rugby Cup finals. 
AOMORI – A 1,000-km road relay between Aomori Prefecture and Tokyo began Wednesday in support of Tohoku’s continuing recovery from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters.Some 1,400 runners and cyclists launched the “Road to Tomorrow” relay in Aomori with the goal of crossing the finish line at Tokyo’s Komazawa Olympic Park two weeks from now on Aug. 7. The host nation marked one year to go until the 2020 Summer Games on the same day. The relay, part of the organizing committee’s ongoing efforts to brand the Tokyo Games as a “Reconstruction Olympics,” was launched with the help of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike attended the starting ceremony and took part in calisthenics with local participants before the race.The course runs along Japan’s Pacific coast, where damage from the 2011 tsunami was the heaviest, passing through the six prefectures of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki and Chiba before finishing in the capital.Naoko Takahashi, who won gold in the women’s marathon at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, was among the runners in the first leg of the relay.“I want us all to feel as one, and pass (our sashes) with smiles on our faces,” Takahashi said.Olympic medalists Nobuharu Asahara and Yuko Arimori will also join as guest runners at some point. IN FIVE EASY PIECES WITH TAKE 5 GET THE BEST OF THE JAPAN TIMES
KEYWORDS Great East Japan Earthquake, Tohoku, Naoko Takahashi, Yuriko Koike 
Nasarawa United defender Chineme Martins has died after slumping midway into their Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) matchday 23 fixture against Katsina United at the Lafia Township Stadium on Sunday.Reports say he was rushed to the Dalhatu-Araf specialist hospital where he was pronounced dead.According to eyewitnesses and several videos which captured events at the stadium, the player wasn’t administered Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at the time he slumped and the designated ambulance refused to start.The delay in the player receiving medical attention is likely to have contributed to his demise according to reports.Play continued with Nasarawa United taking all three points courtesy of Chinedu Ohanachom’s second-half hat trick. Players of the home side were inconsolable at the end after new filtered in of Chineme’s demise.The League Management Company (LMC) commiserated with the club and Martin’s family in a statement on their website. “We commiserate with Nasarawa United and the immediate family of the late player,” LMC chairman Shehu Dikko said in a statement.The LMC called for an autopsy to be conducted on the player to establish the cause of death. “It is hoped that the findings of the autopsy would inform subsequent measures if any that has not been addressed by the existing standard procedure”, the LMC stated.RelatedChineme Martins: NPFL Players To Don Black Armbands, Observe Minute Applause For Fallen DefenderMarch 14, 2020In “Featured”Chineme Martins: Nasarawa United Fined N6m, Docked Six Points Over Player’s DeathMarch 12, 2020In “Featured”Chineme Martins: Deceased Footballer’s Family Refuse NFF Autopsy RequestApril 7, 2020In “Featured”