Paul Bowler, whose last known address was Morley Street, Derby, never faced criminal charges for his part in the crimes after he was exposed in a TV sting by undercover reporter Roger Cook in a programme that was broadcast on September 1, 1998. But the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal in central London last Thursday granted the order banning Bowler from his profession after being presented with evidence showing him as the man who organised the raids.
The tribunal heard how Bowler told undercover reporters posing as art buyers that he had thieves who would steal to order and boasted: “I have got a list of scallywags I can get on a call every five minutes.”
But he was unaware the pub meeting was being secretly filmed for a Cook Report programme called The Antiques Rogue Show. The tribunal was then told how two thieves were later filmed stealing a painting from a country house in Cheshire. Bowler was later present at a car park near Derby County Football ground when the picture was handed to undercover reporters. He was then confronted by Roger Cook.
Jon Goodwin, for the Office of Supervision of Solicitors, said the film “implicates Bowler as a person who could arrange a team of burglars to steal works of art from country homes. It shows him conspiring to arrange theft”.
Following the programme, Bowler had continued to work as a freelance legal clerk for law firms in Blackpool, Lancashire and Derby. The order against him was granted without the need for permission from the Law Society.
Mr Goodwin argued that the order “is not designed to penalise Mr Bowler but as a precaution designed to protect the public from being advised by a person who should not be in a position to advise them or represent them”. Bowler was not present at the hearing.
Tribunal ban over art theft to order
UK: A SOLICITOR’S clerk has been banned from his profession after a tribunal heard how he arranged the theft of valuable works of art to order.
