A SOLICITOR, jailed for five years last year for a #2.3m property swindle involving a string of Scottish hotels, was struck off by a disciplinary tribunal yesterday.

Rodney Hylton-Potts, 51, who practised alone in Knightsbridge, London, conspired with others to defraud banks by submitting over-inflated mortgage valuations on hotels such as the Great Western, Aberdeen; the Glenborne, Edinburgh; and the Kirkwall Hotel in Orkney.

One of the banks in the case is said to be suing him for more than #800,000.

There is also an outstanding #65,000 claim on the Solicitors Compensation Fund by disgruntled former clients.