A court clerk from Fife has been found guilty of abusing her position and fraudulently removing her ex-partner’s name from title deeds to a home in a swanky gated community in Florida.
Shamshad Adams was unanimously convicted of fraud by a jury.
Adams and former partner Gordon Laing bought the three-bedroom home in the Sunshine State seven years ago.
But when their relationship broke down, Adams forged Mr Laing’s signature on a title deed transfer form and abused her position working in court to stamp the document.
Disgraced Adams has now lost her job with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and must pay £250,000 in fines and compensation.
Used court stamp to forge document
Adams, 60, of Dean Park Court in Kirkcaldy, denied forming a fraudulent scheme on July 19 2019 at stood trial at Forfar Sheriff Court.
She stood trial accused of forming the scheme at Kirkcaldy Justice of the Peace Court to obtain full ownership of 2115 Heather Hill Loop in The Villages, Florida.
The property, around an hour’s drive northwest of Orlando, was owned by her and Mr Laing.
Adams denied forging signatures on a deed to award her sole ownership, stamping the form without lawful authority with the official JP stamp of the Sheriffdom of Tayside, Central and Fife and passing it as genuine to Sumter County Court in Florida.
Dodgy deed
The court heard landlord Adams has a portfolio of 14 properties across Scotland and England, including homes, a takeaway and a shop.
Mr Laing, her partner of seven years, transferred £100,000 into a Pakistani bank account which covered his share of the US property bought in 2017.
However, after their relationship turned sour, Mr Laing’s name was wiped from the title deed when a Quit Claim Deed was filed.
That form had to be signed by Mr Laing but the document never reached him.
Instead, it was emailed by American lawyers to Adams and Rubab Qaiser, who the accused described as being “a mutual friend”.
The form was filed in July 2019, signed and stamped.
A Scottish police expert believed Mr Laing’s signature had been forged, although American forensic document examiner Thomas Vastrick – giving evidence from Thomasville, Georgia – said he believed it was genuine.
‘Razzle dazzle’ flop
Adams gave evidence and claimed she paid for the property entirely by herself.
She said Mr Laing was only included in the title deed so he could benefit from residents’ access to nearby golf courses.
She denied forging any signatures or using a JP stamp.
She claimed she would have required a bar officer to let her into the former JP building on St Brycedale Road, where she sometimes worked.
Adams told jurors she did not even see the Quit Claim Deed until a police interview months after it was filed.
The court was shown messages she sent Mr Laing after their relationship collapsed.
One read: “If it sells for half the price, I’m selling it” but in the witness box, Adams claimed she had no intention of parting with the property at that time.
Referencing musical Chicago, prosecutor Lee Corr accused Adams of trying to give jurors “the old razzle dazzle.”
Mr Corr told Adams: “You fraudulently signed Mr Laing’s signature because you wanted to see him suffer.”
Convicted fraudster
The jury took barely over an hour to unanimously find first offender Adams guilty.
Three months after the fraud took place, Adams did sell the American property.
Although the sale was recorded as $265,000 (around £200,000), solicitor Dewar Spence explained Adams only received $225,000 (£170,000) after fees.
Sheriff Mungo Bovey said: “If she still had it, I would be minded to continue (the case) for her to undo that.
“Her difficulty is you represent a convicted fraudster – I’m not minded to accept anything she says.”
Mr Spence also confirmed Adams, who began working for SCTS in 2009, had lost her job.
The court heard Mr Laing previously lost $70,000 in civil proceedings in the USA relating to the property.
Sheriff Bovey ordered Adams to pay Mr Laing £150,000 compensation and fined her £100,000, plus a £7,500 victim surcharge.
He gave Adams a year to sell from her property portfolio to make payment.
The sheriff said: “Although this case, in my view, undoubtedly calls for a custodial sentence, in the circumstances I am able to make a financial rather than a custodial sentence.
“Whether every court would take that view or not I, of course, do not know.
“If you don’t pay, you’ll go to jail for two years.
“‘I’m confident that you’ll avoid that.”
Speaking following the sentencing, Mr Laing said: “It’s been a long, difficult five years.”
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