A TEAM led by Edinburgh financial giant Royal Bank of Scotland today sealed victory in the battle for Dutch bank ABN Amro.

The consortium, which includes Spain’s Santander and Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis, declared its offer unconditional after winning the backing of 86 per cent of ABN’s shareholders for its 71 billion euro (49.1 billion) bid.

The trio, which beat off a rival 43 billion offer from Barclays, made the declaration following the conclusion of Fortis’s 13 billion euro (9bn) rights issue and encouraged all remaining ABN shareholders to accept their offer as soon as possible.

Barclays withdrew from the bidding last week after failing to win the 80 per cent backing needed for its mainly share-based offer, which fell in value during the recent summer turmoil across global stock markets.

The winning consortium now faces the task of breaking up the bank, a process which is likely to shed up to 19,000 jobs. The break-up will involve some 4500 branches across 53 countries.

Some City commentators have raised concerns over the price the RBS-led team has paid and potential problems with the handling of the carve-up with the Dutch bank in the midst of unstable financial markets.

Others have questioned why RBS has continued with its bid after ABN sold its LaSalle US banking operation to Bank of America. LaSalle was seen as a jewel in the crown for RBS when the bid battle began six months ago.

Despite missing out on LaSalle, Royal Bank of Scotland will get the rest of ABN’s North American business, the lion’s share of its European business, the bank’s Asian operations and its wholesale business, excluding Brazil.

Fortis meanwhile is set to grab the Netherlands operations, the global private clients business, and the global asset management business.

That leaves Santander with the majority of the Latin America divisions, Italian bank Antonveneta, and Dutch credit firms Interbank and DMC Consumer Finance.

WILD Scottish salmon have been hit by a parasite that experts fear may damage their ability to spawn.

Grilse - one-year-old fish - returning to their home rivers this summer have been found to be infected by an ocean-dwelling worm which causes them to bleed from their rear vents.

Cases of “bleeding vent syndrome” have been found on 23 salmon rivers. On some waterways, up to 80% of the fish have been found to have the inflammation as a result of infection, which can stop them spawning. Anglers are being urged to report all cases to fisheries scientists.

Seymour Monro, director of the Atlantic Salmon Trust, a fish conservation charity, said: “Most of Scotland’s salmon rivers seem to be encountering this phenomenon. We and others are urgently investigating the origin and implications of the problem.”

On the River Lochy, near Fort William, fisheries manager Jon Gibb said there had been a good run of grilse this year but up to 80% had bleeding vent syndrome.

“The fish have been in cracking condition apart from these badly swollen vents. The problem is, that is where the eggs are and we don’t know if this will affect breeding next season. If it does, that could be an enormous problem in the future.”

One theory is that the problem is caused by the warming of the world’s oceans. As a consequence, the parasitic worm, which can be found in shrimps that salmon eat at sea, thrive.

Jeremy Jones, who works for the Inverness-based Fish Vets group, said the parasite was being found in much higher numbers this year in the muscle around the rear vent.

“It is causing this intense inflammation. In low numbers the worm doesn’t affect the fish but in large numbers it starts to break down the tissues. What we don’t know is whether it will have an effect on spawning.”

A DISGRACED solicitor who siphoned off more than 1,300 of clients’ fees said yesterday she had committed the crime to pay council tax debts and that her actions now made her feel “sick”.

Zosia Fraser, 29, who had excellent prospects before her dishonesty came to light, said she was struggling with debts in excess of 15,000 when she began taking money paid by clients. “It’s no wonder that people love to hate lawyers,” she said.

Fraser pleaded guilty last month to embezzling 1,315 from the Dundee-based law firm Muir, Myles, Laverty. She will be sentenced next week and faces being barred from practising by the Law Society of Scotland.

She told The Scotsman she had been “pilloried” since the crime came to light. “I’m not looking to excuse what I’ve done, but I feel everything that has been said about me is very one-sided. I just want to put my side across, not say ‘poor me’,” she said.

Fraser had been suffering from depression at the time and was deeply in debt to Dundee City Council as a result of unpaid council tax. She said she had debts of between 15,000 and 20,000 - nearly half of which was owed to the council - when she began taking the money.

“I’m not saying I stole money from clients because I had a council tax debt. I’m a fairly rational person. Would I take anything from people now? No. I can’t say there’s a link between suffering from depression and committing a criminal act, but I wasn’t thinking rationally at the time,” she said.

Fraser said her clients had paid money up front for representation - something she says “all solicitors do”. It was from these advance payments that she began taking money.

“I would take maybe 50 to 100 a time,” she said. “It was an opportune thing rather than something that was planned.”

Fraser left Muir, Myles, Laverty in September 2004 to work for Joe Myles, a former partner of the firm. She was exposed two months later when a former colleague told her they had noticed “irregularities” in the accounts, and suggested it was time to “come clean”.

Her old employer reported the matter to the Law Society of Scotland before referring it to Tayside Police.

Fraser, a domestic law specialist, originally from Inverness, graduated from Dundee University with a diploma in legal practice in 1999.

She worked for the Dundee law firm RSB Macdonald as a trainee but was sacked for gross misconduct after forging a doctor’s letter stating she had suffered a miscarriage and would have to take time off work.

Fraser said: “I bitterly regret my actions. I feel so terrible about it. I know these were honest, hard-working people who I took money from. That makes me sick. I’m advised I’ll be struck off. I’ll be fine, but the legal profession’s reputation is already in the gutter and I haven’t done anything to help that.

“I wish I’d asked people for help instead of doing what I did. It was despicable.” SOLICITORS WHO FELL FROM GRACE

IN 2004, another promising Dundee-based solicitor was convicted and fined after admitting a 5,187 child care tax fraud.

Louise Hay pretended to be a single parent and received the Working Family Tax Credit by signing Inland Revenue forms with the name Hazel Mears. She was fined 750 at Dundee Sheriff Court.

Hay was fired by the Edinburgh law firm Simpson & Marwick and later lost her unfair dismissal case.

However, the Scottish Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that Hay, from Broughty Ferry, could remain a lawyer because there was little chance of her reoffending.

In April, a solicitor who was jailed for 32 months for smuggling drugs into a prison was freed after serving just a year.

Angela Baillie, 33, a former defence lawyer nicknamed Ally McDeal by the tabloids, was jailed after pleading guilty to handing a cigarette packet containing heroin and diazepam worth 1,600 to a man awaiting trial in Glasgow’s Barlinnie prison.

Baillie, who has a daughter aged 16, claimed she smuggled the drugs into the jail under extreme duress.

It is understood she was tagged as part of the home detention curfew scheme which allows prisoners to be released before serving half their sentence.

The pressure group dedicated to exposing corrupt lawyers, Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers (SACL), fought in last month’s elections to the Scottish Parliament.

SACL has featured “rogues’ galleries” of lawyers alleged to be corrupt.

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