Everyone except the victims is to blame here. The courts should have done better, but in the UK these people would have been unable to get a public defender and unable to afford their own defence either. So many would have plead guilty and others had to try and manage the defence themselves. The result is predictable.

A wider question is why no one asked why so many people with the same job were being charged and convicted/pleading guilty. Fraud is a rare crime and rarely prosecuted. So many Cases in one profession is fishy all by itself.