THE former chairman of Dundee Football Club completed his spectacular fall from grace yesterday when he was jailed for seven years for cheating clients out or more than #83,000 and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

One of Andrew Drummond's victims was a 100-year-old woman.

Former high-flier Drummond, 39, has already been struck off from practising as a solicitor and evicted from the #250,000 mansion he once shared with his partner.

He had denied embezzling #52,271 between March and November 1993 while a partner with law firm Drummond, Robbie, and Gibson in Bell Street, Dundee. He also pleaded not guilty to embezzling a further #31,625 between January and June 1995 while acting as manager of the firm after he had been struck off.

However, a jury convicted him of the charges after a three-week trial at the High Court in Edinburgh and also found him guilty of attempting to cover his tracks by providing false documents to the Crown Office and police.

One of Drummond's victims was Mrs Violet Cuthbert who was in a nursing home in Newport-on-Tay in Fife from about the end of 1992 until she died in March 1995 in her 101st year. Drummond was looking after the trust fund which paid for her nursing bills.

The court heard that #33,000 was removed from the Alexander Cuthbert Trust, of which Mrs Cuthbert was a beneficiary, to go towards a #110,000 retirement package for a partner of Drummond's law firm.

The trust was also cheated out of nearly #7500 to pay for rent for Tayside China, an unsuccessful gift shop in Dundee's Overgate shopping centre run by Mr Robert Prentice with whom Drummond lived as a couple.

Another client, Mr Ian Robb, told the court he had received #10,000 compensation from Dundee Council after an accident at work in 1990 but never received payment from Drummond.

Various amounts ranging from #2350 to #11,700 were taken from other clients.

Drummond blamed some of the offences on his former colleague, Mr Ritchie Myles, who came back into the law firm from retirement in December 1994 after Drummond was struck off and was no longer allowed to practise as a solicitor.

Before Mr Myles died, he gave several statements to the police and the jury was played a tape in which he stated it was Drummond who remained in charge of trusts and executries.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Neil Murray QC, defence counsel, asked Lord Penrose to exercise such leniency as was consistent with his public duty.

''This was not a situation where money was being taken to finance a lifestyle high on the hog. He is an individual who has fallen from professional grace a seriously long way and to all intents and purposes there is no way he will ever be re-admitted into the profession to which he devoted himself.

''He is an individual who is totally broken.''

Lord Penrose told Drummond: ''You are clearly well aware that I have no alternative but to impose a significant custodial sentence.''

Drummond was chairman of Dundee FC briefly between the reigns of local millionaire property developer Angus Cook and Canadian businessman Ron Dixon after he bought a 30% share of the club in 1991 from Mr Cook.

However, his legal career began to unravel in 1994, a catastrophic year for him.

In July, he was fined #8000 by the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal for professional misconduct over the purchase of the Dundee FC shares which led to his appointment as club chairman in 1991.

In November 1994, a sheriff at Dundee ordered the eviction of Mr Drummond from Langlands, the #250,000 mansion in Forfar he had shared for eight years with his friend, Mr Prentice, after they failed to repay a debt of more than #240,000 to the Bank of Scotland.

That same month, the discipline tribunal decided Drummond had brought the legal profession into disrepute and was no longer a fit person to practise as a solicitor.

He was found guilty of failing to wind up clients' estates and delay in transferring assets to beneficiaries. The tribunal referred to Drummond's arrogance and deviousness and his cavalier attitude towards his clients.

In September 1995, he was fined #1500 at Dundee Sheriff Court for illegal dealing in Dundee FC shares. He admitted he had contravened the Companies Act by not revealing the interests he had in the company's shares between August 1991 and January 1992.

Clients who lost money because of Drummond's actions have been reimbursed by the Law Society of Scotland after claims on the Scottish Solicitors' Guarantee Fund and the solicitors' master insurance policy which between them cover dishonesty and negligence.