A propoerty lawyer who helped a gang of crooks drain £1.5m from a City banker’s account has been thrown out of the profession.

Graham Leather, 60, of Lewis Close, Headington, allowed his Oxford law firm’s client account to be used to make the massive funds transfer appear legitimate.

Mark Couling, a millionaire with a “very large” bank balance, woke up on New Year’s Eve 2007 to find his account had been emptied.

Leather, a partner at Oxford law firm Ferguson Bricknell, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

At a Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal heard yesterday, Leather – who is serving a four-and-a-half-year jail sentence – was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £19,000.