A GWENT solicitor has admitted stealing nearly £500,000 from the estates of dead clients.

Russell Hiscott, who ran the firm Hiscott and Co, in Monmouth, carried out a string of thefts between 1998 and 2002.

The disgraced lawyer, 54, who has been struck off by the Law Society, had already admitted stealing over £350,000 from clients.

And yesterday, Hiscott admitted three more counts of theft at Newport crown court, bringing the total stolen during the four-year period to over £470,000.

He pleaded guilty to:

* Stealing £41,000 belonging to the estate of Morris May, from Cardiff, on April 10, 2000. * Stealing £57,000 from the same estate on May 24, 2000. * Stealing a credit balance of £10,000 from Richard Burberry, of Thornbury, Bristol.

Hiscott, of Filton Road, Bristol, is due to be sentenced for the offences on February 27.

Among the earlier offences admitted by Hiscott were the theft of £84,720 from the estate of Ian Granville Ward, from Caldicot, and £68,000 from the estate of Morris Laschelles May, from Cardiff.

His barrister, Stephen Fritton, told the court that his client had been declared bankrupt.

Judge David Morris released Hiscott on bail with conditions to live at his Bristol address and to co-operate with the probation service in the writing of pre-sentence reports.

The Law Society has said of the case: "The respondent's dishonest taking of clients' money could only bring the solicitors' profession into serious disrepute and it was right that the public be protected from a solicitor prepared to act in such a manner."