A SOLICITOR who made more than £13m a year from sick miners’ compensation claims has been struck off.

Andrew Nulty, from Culcheth, Warrington processed around 30,000 claims since 2001 with his law firm Avalon.

The company earned an estimated £40m in legal fees from those claims, brought under an £8bn Government compensation scheme.

At the end of the 2005/06 financial year he declared £21.2m in fees with a prof9t of £15.5m.

After a three day hearing the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal said 41-year-old Nulty’s behaviour was ‘a disgrace to the profession’ and made him the third solicitor to be barred from the profession over the miners’ claims.

Nulty had told clients their claim would cost nothing, but later said there would be a success fee, it was alleged.

Nulty, formerly a model and TV presenter, had also said that his father and grandfather had both been miners.

Nulty, now believed to be living in Spain, and his partner Malcolm Trotter had not acted in their clients’ best interests and had damaged the profession’s reputation, the tribunal ruled.

It also proved misconduct in Avalon’s relationship with claims handling company Sureclaim.

Nulty, who left Avalon in 2007, was struck off and ordered to pay £60,000 towards costs.

Trotter, who left Avalon in 2004, was fined £10,000 towards costs.