A Dorchester real estate lawyer has been disbarred for a laundry list of infractions for misusing thousands of dollars of his clients' money that was supposed to be held in trust.

Alec Dobson lost his license to practice law and his membership to The Law Society of Upper Canada was revoked following a hearing last week.

He was ordered to pay $158,472.08 to the society's compensation fund -- money that was used for grants to the complainants -- along with $5,000 in costs.

The society is the governing body for lawyers in Ontario.

In a decision published on the society's website, Dobson was found to have engaged in professional misconduct by failing to maintain proper books and records and for misleading a society investigator about three trust accounts.

He also was withdrawing large amounts of money, belonging to six sets of clients, he was holding in trust, then telling the clients he'd followed their instructions in paying off mortgages and real-estate commissions.

While there is a summary of some of the transgressions in the decision, more details are found in the application of notice filed May 21, 2009.

Dobson had misled an investigator when he said he didn't have a trust account. Once an account was discovered and frozen, Dobson opened two other trust accounts in succession at two other banks.

The notice of application says the removal of the trust monies occurred during the first seven months of 2008.

One client, named in the society's final decision, when asking why he was still paying interest on a line of credit, discovered the debt hadn't been paid and the more than $270,000 had been used "for another purpose."

Clients were assured in letters the money had been properly forwarded to pay off mortgages, when Dobson knew what he was telling them was false.

In one instance, Dobson told a client he'd paid out a mortgage and left him with a cancelled cheque. When it was found out the cheque was false, Dobson said he'd issued a new bank draft, but didn't.

In an another transaction, Dobson wrote to a listing real estate agent that the proceeds from a sale had been wired to the client's account, when they hadn't.

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca