British lawyer cited in phony title scheme

A British lawyer faces discipline after allegedly enabling a scam to bestow fake feudal titles to foreigners over the Internet, investigators say.

Prosecutors told the Solicitors Disciplinary tribunal in London that attorney Roger Pitts-Tucker of New Barnet, Hertfordshire, worked with a company, British Feudal Investments, which sold bogus feudal titles to Americans and other foreigners, allegedly giving them a stamp of legality, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Pitts-Tucker denies the seven charges of conduct unbefitting a solicitor, the newspaper said. At issue in the hearing were 13 transactions involving the sale of feudal titles for between $4,500 and $30,000 each, which prosecutors say contain a total of 57 alleged instances of professional misconduct.

Solicitors Board investigator Patricia Robertson told the tribunal that the titles weren't accurately represented to buyers as purely "vanity titles, or just a pretty bit of paper you (could) put on your wall. They (were) being sold as something of real and appraising value, or at the very least, as an interesting but real bit of history," The Times reported.