A Flitwick solicitor who dishonestly misappropriated more than £350,000 of clients' money to help a crooked property dealer was thrown out of the profession on Tuesday.

Linda Collier, 45, of Glebe Avenue, handed over an initial £141,850 entrusted to her by a mortgage company to a businessman who claimed he needed the funds to finance a string of home deals.

The client, referred to as Mr B, promised he would pay back the money on Collier's return from a holiday to Luton law firm Churchman Thacker, where she was a partner. 

But the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard the crooked client never gave the money back. He then managed to persuade desperate Collier to hand over the rest of the £348,500, in a bid to try to make good the losses. Collier then gave Mr B thousands of pounds from other clients to try to claw back the missing money during August 2004, the hearing was told. 

The solicitor also helped associates of Mr B with a string of mortgage frauds, the hearing further heard.

George Marriott, for the Law Society, said the cash had been entrusted by the mortgage lenders to Collier as an advance to Mr B on a different property and should have been used to discharge the debt on that home.

He added: "To be disbursed in that way was not just a flagrant breach of the rules, but amounts to dishonest conduct."

Collier resigned from the firm in December 2004, dissolving her partnership in the practice with unsuspecting fellow partner Jonathan Bottoms, 51, of Meppershall.

The Law Society closed down the practice in George Street West after the firm failed to replace the missing cash in the client accounts. 

The solicitors' compensation fund has had to replace the lost money and Bottoms, as the sole remaining practitioner, was left with a bill in excess of £50,000 to pay for the Law Society intervention. 

Collier later claimed she was tricked by Mr B and told investigators: "I don't know how I could have been so stupid."

Mr Marriott said Collier had also assisted associates of Mr B "engage in mortgage fraud" by acting for them on a string of dubious property deals.

The hearing was told Bottoms had no idea about Collier's activities until a complaint was made by the HSBC bank about a mortgage deal.

Bottoms appeared at the hearing to admit three allegations of accounts rule breaches.

The tribunal heard that under Law Society regulations he, as a joint partner, was also liable for the mistakes made on clients' accounts by Collier.

No dishonesty was alleged against Bottoms, but the tribunal decided that Collier had acted dishonestly and had assisted her client to engage in property fraud.

Collier was ordered to pay costs of £13,850 and was struck off the roll of solicitors.

The tribunal decided to issue Bottoms with a reprimand and ordered him to pay costs of £3,500.