A Kelowna lawyer that misappropriated almost $100,000 of clients' money has been fined $3,500 and suspended for 18 months. According to the Law Society of B.C., Paule Fiona Seeger, who now goes by Paule Moore, made dozens of improper withdrawals from client trust accounts totalling $97,934 between January 2017 and September 2018.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Paule Moore

A Kelowna lawyer that misappropriated almost $100,000 of clients' money has been fined $3,500 and suspended for 18 months.

According to the Law Society of B.C., Paule Fiona Seeger, who now goes by Paule Moore, made dozens of improper withdrawals from client trust accounts totalling $97,934 between January 2017 and September 2018.

The society described Seeger's behaviour as "extremely serious" and "egregious."

The society stated her actions were a "mix of reckless and dishonest behaviour."

"While... (Seeger) was experiencing serious personal and financial difficulties when the professional misconduct occurred, including (a) marital breakdown and identity theft, these circumstances do not justify the (Seeger's) actions," the society said.

The suspended lawyer also billed several clients at her hourly rate of $300 an hour but then had an articling student do the work but didn't charge the lower $200 an hour rate. Because of this, she overcharged her client $1,710.

The society also reprimanded Seeger for not telling them about a $117,097 court judgment for an unpaid tax bill from the Canadian Revenue Agency.

On one occasion she billed a client $1,400 for work she hadn't done.

In 2018, Seeger hired a bookkeeper, who several months later after seeing all the irregularities reported Seeger to the law society.

While Seeger was on holiday in the Caribbean, she left a packet of blank cheques for the bookkeeper to use.

"(Seeger's) actions posed an unacceptable risk to client funds. The creation of the risk is itself serious misconduct," the society ruled.

The decision said after her 18-month suspension is over Seeger will have to prove to the law society she is not adversely affected by a dependency on alcohol or drugs to practice again.

The decision said Seeger has been diagnosed with a lifelong alcohol use disorder, which is now in remission.

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