Fees: Solicitor had client pay him in cash
A solicitor has been struck off for telling clients to pay small sums of money into his personal account.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said he aimed to conceal the misconduct by deleting emails, creating false invoices and failing to provide “full information” about the genuine charges.
Very unusually, the solicitor, known only as ‘AN’, was given anonymity on the basis of medical evidence.
The tribunal heard he tried, but failed, to persuade one client to transfer just under £300 to his bank account, but obtained transfers of £450 and £200 two others.
In a statement of agreed facts outcome, approved by the SDT, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said the dishonest conduct was “premeditated, as evidenced by the careful and considered way” in which it was carried out.
Each incident involved “repeated email or telephone contact with clients”, with the intention of diverting payments to the solicitor that should have paid to his firm or never have been charged.
“At the heart of the conduct was the respondent’s manipulation of the client/ solicitor relationship of trust. He directly lied to his clients, either about the total fees they owed to the firm, and/or how the same should be settled.”
AN qualified as a solicitor in 2019, having previously worked as a conveyancer for three years. The unnamed firm where he worked reported him to the SRA in 2021 after receiving a complaint from ‘Client A’ that AN asked her to pay £292.50 to his personal bank account for an aborted property transaction.
The agreement said AN deleted key emails to hide what he had done, having not saved them to the firm’s case management system.
AN was instructed by Client B to transfer equity in a property they owned to a relative. He did not provide a quote for the fees but told them to attend the firm’s offices in April 2021 and give him £450 in cash, which they did. He said he could not provide a receipt because there was no receipt book, which was not true.
Soon after, the client paid the firm £474, said to be the balance of its fees but actually the full amount, and AN created a false invoice for £924 on the firm’s system.
He later admitted to his boss that he had sought the cash because of “money struggles”.
AN was also instructed in April 2021 by Client C, to deal with a transfer of 50% of a partner’s property to the client. The client acceded to his request to spilt £200 from £648 fees payment to the firm and pay it into his personal account.
Though she thought this was unusual, she said she did not question it as she had no previous experience of using solicitors and trusted him as a professional.
AN created a false audit trail on the firm’s system to cover up what he had done.
AN admitted acting dishonestly and apologised for his misconduct, saying the money had been repaid and the period of the misconduct was short.
The SDT ordered that the solicitor be struck off. The SRA did not seek costs given AN’s financial situation.
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