Lawyer keeps up care homes fight

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A solicitor cleared of breaching rules of professional conduct related to fighting care home closures has vowed to continue her work.

Yvonne Hossack said news of a closure and having to move home could bring on heart attacks and strokes in residents.

"How can that ever be right?" said Miss Hossack, 53, of Kettering, Northants.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson, in his capacity as Hull MP, gave evidence backing Miss Hossack at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in London.

The case against Miss Hossack, who had been criticised by Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Hull councils, had been brought by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (SRA).

She estimates that she has saved about 80 care homes from closure over her 30-year career.

"I think it's wrong to kill old ladies and gentlemen," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"That may not be the objective of what they [local authorities] are doing, but it's certainly the result of what they are doing.

"They do it because those old people's homes, they are on parcels of land that are very valuable and they want the money - and that's not a good enough reason."

Miss Hossack had always rejected the allegations against her, including claims that she provided confidential information to third parties.

Panel chairman Dominic Green said although all six allegations were not proven, the third allegation relating to disclosing information to a third party did breach a rule at the lowest level.

An SRA spokesman said: "We will examine the tribunal's written account of the hearing before making any comment."