Family left homeless after solicitor stole £400k

The Humphris family are warning others to beware of fraudulent solicitors after they were left homeless by a lawyer who stole the deposit for their new house.

Gary Humphris deposited over 400 thousand pounds with his own solictor to buy the home in Sidcup. His lawyers then transferred it to the vendor's solictor, who stole the money.

The family had been living in the house in Sidcup for six weeks when the discovery was made. The house has now been re-possessed and they have been left homeless. They're currently staying with Samantha's mother, having lost all their life savings.

One man has already been jailed in connection with this case after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud. Mustafizur Rahman, a Bangladeshi National, was sentenced to two and half years in prison at the Old Bailey last month. A man and a woman from Hackney are also under investigation.

The Humphris are waiting to hear if they will receive compensation from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. They would like to see a change in the law so that what happened to them doesn't happen to anyone else.