The Solicitors Regulation Authority is once again warning the public to be wary of questionable investment schemes that use the involvement of solicitors to encourage them to participate.

Whereas most solicitors would not involve themselves with dubious investment schemes, a tiny minority do and the SRAstate that in the last nine months they have taken action against eight law firms, involving losses to the public of around £50m.

The problem is that as interest rates stay low, more and more people are looking for new ways to secure a high return on their savings. Whilst there are undoubtedly many legitimate ways of investing money some of the schemes that offer high returns can also be very high risk or even fraudulent.

The SRA state that they have provided a range of advice for people who are considering investing and will continue to protect the public by taking action against solicitors who fall short of the high standards expected of the profession.

The SRA is currently looking into cases involving the loss of tens-of-millions of pounds.

The new SRA warning includes information on general warning signs investors should look out for, and ways they can protect themselves.

The new warning can be found on the SRA web site at www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/fraud-dishonesty/property-schemes.page whilst the original warning notice issued last November is at www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/fraud-dishonesty/investment-schemes.page