A TRIAL date has been set at Liverpool Crown Court for a Lancashire solicitor accused of forging a will, fraud and theft from client accounts.

John Burrows is jointly charged with Thomas Webb with conspiring between July 1992 and June 1996 to defraud the beneficiaries and executors of the estate of Leslie Barnes by fabricating a will and directing the proceeds of the estate to themselves and associates.

Burrows and Webb are also charged with falsifying a document purporting to be Mr Barnes' last will and testament between July 17 1992 and September 5 1992 and using that false instrument with intent to induce another to accept it as genuine on September 5 1995.

The two men are also accused of stealing £647 in May 1994 belonging to Clitheroe solicitors Steele and Sons, by whom Burrows was employed, relating to Herbert Ellis.

Burrows also faces two charges of conspiring with Ian Golding between January 1993 and December 1994 to defraud in relation to two properties in Trentham and Blackburn.

He is further charged with other allegations of theft totalling £2,360 from Steele and Sons relating to four clients between January 1994 and August 1995.

Golding, 57, of Kingsway, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, has already pleaded guilty to related matters at the magistrates court and will be sentenced at the conclusion of matters involving Burrows and Webb.

Antonis Georges, prosecuting, said the indictment before the court was likely to be amended by the adjourned plea and directions hearing on June 18.

Burrows, 50, of Chipping, and Webb, 66, of St Hubert's Street, Great Harwood, were bailed for trial on February 21 next year.

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