An attorney who once faced theft charges for using property of an estate he represented as collateral on a $7,000 loan has been disbarred.

Westmoreland County detectives last year charged attorney Keith S. Houser of Greensburg with theft by deception. Mr. Houser allegedly used property of a dead woman's estate for collateral on the loan without consulting her family.

Those charges were dropped last month when restitution was paid out of the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an order disbarring Mr. Houser a few days later, and that order formally took effect this week.

"I was going through an extremely stressful period of time," Mr. Houser said. "I'm very happy no longer to be an attorney."