A BLACK Country solicitor and former councillor who acted as a director of an overseas housing scheme which collapsed owing millions to investors may face further sanctions.

Former Dudley councillor Charles Fraser-Macnamara, a former deputy leader of Dudley Council, was suspended from practising law for 12 months and ordered to pay £10,000 costs after being found to have breached Solicitors Regulation Authority rules along with fellow solicitors from former Stourbridge law firm Sanders & Co - Michael Davies, Clare Taman and Katie Fraser-Macnamara - after they acted on behalf of investors in a proposed Brazilian social housing scheme which crashed owing around £20million.

Mr Fraser-Macnamara, who was a consultant for Sanders & Co and later a director of Ecohouse, along with Mr Davies, Ms Taman and his daughter Katie were all found to have breached SRA principles with their handling of the overseas investment scheme.

The tribunal, held in autumn 2016, found there was a conflict or significant risk of conflict between the interests of Ecohouse, the interests of each individual investor and the interests of the firm - and the hearing determined that all four failed to act in the best interests of each client and allowed their independence to be compromised.

Mr Davies and Ms Taman, initially suspended from practising law for 12 months, were later given three-year suspensions after the SRA appealed to the High Court - saying sanctions imposed on the pair "were too lenient in a case where £20million was lost”.

The SRA did not appeal the sanctions imposed on Mr Fraser-Macnamara, a former Tory councillor for Sedgley, at the time. But it has now published its intention to prosecute before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Mr Fraser-Macnamara is accused of causing or allowing misrepresentations to be made to potential investors in Ecohouse Developments Limited, failing to maintain, preserve or deliver up adequate accounting records for Ecohouse, involving himself in a dubious scheme and/or dubious transactions and/or causing or allowing transactions which bore the hallmarks of fraud and/or money laundering.

He is also accused of profiting from and/or misleading members of the public into investing in the proposed housing scheme - and providing false information about the amount he was paid by Ecohouse and whether he could access the Ecohouse bank accounts before May 2014.

A notice on the SRA website states: "The allegations are subject to a hearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and are as yet unproven."

Mr Fraser Macnamara told the News after the first tribunal that he had not practised law since January 2013.