A SOLICITOR billed a North-East football club £2,000 for a lavish meal thrown for his friends, a tribunal heard yesterday.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that 53-year-old David Hayes spent £230 on a four-hour lunch at a top restaurant in London's Mayfair.

He paid the bill for the meal at the Greenhouse in Mayfair on November 18, 1998, that included three bottles of Premier Cru Chablis.

But he allegedly then improperly claimed it was a business meeting and charged Darlington FC - the third division club he had been working for - £2,000.

The tribunal was told that he charged for the meal, the hourly rate while he ate plus travel from Coventry where he worked and the cost of a hotel.

He decided to throw the party to celebrate the £100,000 he had earned doing legal work for the club's then director, Michael Peden, the tribunal heard.

The cash paid for his work on the construction of a new east stand at the club's Feethams ground.

The tribunal heard how Mr Peden, who was not at the lunch, later discovered the invoice and complained to the Law Society.

Mr Hayes denies overcharging and misleading a client.

He claims the meal was a business meeting to discuss work matters, including a row over rights of access to the ground between Darlington football and cricket clubs.

Stephen Battersby, for the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, said: "The Law Society says that it wasn't a business meeting and therefore it wasn't something Mr Hayes was entitled to charge for.

"It was a celebratory lunch to mark the fact bills owed to the three of them had been paid by Mr Peden."

Businessman Peter Will-iams, who was at the meal, said no business was discussed. He told the hearing: 'The purpose of the meeting was to the celebrate a very complicated corporate settlement."

The hearing continues.