A medical negligence lawyer improperly took “loans” worth more than half a million pounds from his clients' damages, a tribunal heard.

Marcus Nickson, 63 – one of the best known senior lawyers in West Cumbria – was a partner and then a director at the now-closed KJ Commons & Co law firm, which had offices in Carlisle and Workington.

A probe by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – the body which regulates the work of lawyers - uncovered a shortage of about £537,000 from some of the legally aided cases he conducted.

Nickson was referred to the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) after officials noticed “irregular payments” were made out of some client trust funds for which Nickson was a trustee.

It is alleged he took indefinite and unsecured "loans" worth £530,000 by making deductions from clients' damages in a bid to bankroll his cash-strapped firm.

Nickson worked on several high-profile Cumbrian cases, including a £3m payout for a young boy left with catastrophic brain damage after medics at the West Cumberland Hospital failed to spot he was being starved of oxygen.

He also conducted the case of a man from Bigrigg left with kidney failure after he ate a contaminated burger on a luxury Egyptian holiday.

He was awarded damages of £750,000.

James McClelland, for the SDT, said Nickson qualified as a lawyer in 1977 and had 30 years' experience by the time the bulk of the allegations in 2007.

“This is not a young and inexperienced solicitor,” he said.

“This is a solicitor who was a leader in his field.”

Nickson should have been aware of the central precept that a solicitor's legally aided client is not liable to them for the costs of their representation, said Mr McClelland.

“One limb of the defence case is this unawareness of that central precept and the second limb seeks to maintain that Mr Nickson had little or no management of the costs in his firm,” said the prosecutor.

The tribunal heard that Nickson began doing clinical negligence cases in 1982 – 20 years before the alleged misconduct.

By the early 1990s he had developed his own practice specialising in “complex and high-value” claims, and he was the only person in his firm doing this work.

“We say Mr Nickson was in fact far more involved in the costs issues than his evidence would suggest,” said Mr McClelland.

“It is plain that Mr Nickson conducted many hundreds of cases through the legal aid regime up until the time the allegations are concerned.”

It was common ground, said Mr McClelland, that "hundreds of thousands of pounds" were improperly deducted from the damages of legally-aided clients. One of the five clients involved was a widow – referred to as E, and awarded £252,500 damages in 2011.

This settlement stemmed from a clinical negligence matter which resulted in the death of her husband.

“The long and short of it is that only £196,400 was paid to E herself which meant that she was deprived of £56,100 – just over 20 per cent – of her total damages,” said the prosecutor.

“It was Mr Nickson who was the instrumental person in obtaining that deduction."

The tribunal was told Nickson effectively took indefinite and unsecured loans for his firm from the clients until the sums involved were recovered from the other party in the case.

“Mr Nickson needed money to bankroll his firm and in effect his client was lending him the money to do that,” added Mr McClelland.

“Mr Nickson, by his own account, was the only person at the firm doing clinical negligence work. He was the only fee-earner in a position to know what the legal aid regime was in terms of clinical negligence cases.

“It is simply not right to say that he was relying upon some form of expertise from the administration staff.

“As a matter of evidence it is clear that Mr Nickson authorised the deduction of costs from client damages in circumstances that were obviously improper.

"And secondly, that he knew it was improper to do so.”

Nickson is formally accused of failing to act with integrity, acting in a way that diminishes public confidence in his profession, failing to comply with a court order and failing to provide a good standard of service.

He denies all the allegations. The tribunal continues.

KJ Commons & Co closed at the end of 2014.