A LAWYER repeatedly asked a client for a £350,000 loan — telling him it was something to do with a stolen painting, a jury heard yesterday.
But Roy Radcliffe, 60, said he dismissed the proposal as "ludicrous", even though he was promised a ten per cent profit on his cash within days.
His then-solicitor Marshall Ronald, 53, is one of five men accused of demanding more than £4million for the safe return of a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.
Mr Radcliffe told the High Court in Edinburgh how he got a call from him in September 2007.
He said: "He asked me if I wanted to make some money. If I could lend him £350,000 I'd get a return of £35,000 within a few days."
Asked by prosecutor Simon Di Rollo about his reaction, Mr Radcliffe said: "It just seemed a bit ludicrous."
He told how Ronald called twice more, repeating his request and talking about a painting.
Mr Radcliffe added: "He just said it was something that had been stolen from Scotland and he could retrieve it for the rightful owner."
More than four years earlier, The Madonna of the Yarnwinder was snatched from the Duke of Buccleuch's Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire.
The jury also heard how Ronald arranged a £350,000 cash withdrawal from his law firm's client account — asking for the cash to be delivered to a Liverpool building firm.
The money was to get access to the stolen painting, the trial heard.
Ronald, of Upholland, Lancs, Robert Graham, 57, and John Doyle, 61, both of Ormskirk, Lancs, Calum Jones, 45, of Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, and David Boyce, 63, of Airdrie, deny conspiring to extort £4,250,000.
Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2890939/Lawyer-wanted-350k-art-loan-Da-Vinci-trial-told.html#ixzz1qaaHWSGu
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