A FORMER Dudley councillor and solicitor has been suspended from practising law for 12 months and ordered to pay £10,000 costs after being hauled before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal following the collapse of a multi-million pound overseas investment scheme.

Ex-Tory councillor Charles Fraser-Macnamara, a former deputy leader of the council, was summoned to appear before the tribunal, together with Michael Davies – the borough’s former duty defence solicitor, Clare Taman and daughter Katie Fraser-Macnamara, accused of breaching Solicitors Regulation Authority rules.

The tribunal, which concluded on November 4, followed the collapse of Ecohouse Developments, which was behind a proposed Brazilian social housing scheme which crashed last year - owing £21 million to investors.

At the end of the hearing all four solicitors were found to have breached SRA principles after admitting they acted or permitted Sanders & Co to act for Ecohouse Developments Limited in relation to a complex overseas investment scheme and for 849 investors in a situation where there was a conflict, or significant risk of conflict, between the interests of Ecohouse, the interests of each individual investor and the interests of the firm or individual interests of Mr Fraser-Macnamara.

The tribunal determined all four failed to act in the best interests of each client and allowed their independence to be compromised.

Mr Fraser-Macnamara – who was also a director of Ecohouse Developments, Mr Davies and Ms Taman were also found to have failed to act with integrity and in a way that maintains public trust in the provision of legal services.

A spokesman for the SRA, which brought about the prosecutions, said: "If a solicitor behaves in a way that is contradictory to the code of conduct our role is to take disciplinary action as necessary to act as a deterrent to the rest of the profession."

The tribunal will publish its findings in full within the coming weeks and the solicitors will then have 21 days in which to appeal.

Mr Fraser-Macnamara said he has not decided whether to take the matter to appeal but he stressed he has not practised law since January 2013 and he said of the tribunal's decision to make no order against his daughter: "The fact there was no sanction and no order for costs speaks for itself.