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The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it cannot explain why the number of interventions into law firms in the first five months of 2017 was twice the figure for the same period last year. The regulator said there was also a “noticeable increase” in the size of firm.

A solicitor who confessed to his law firm that he had faked a letter “within hours” of sending it to a client, has been fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Ian Giddings, based at the Warwick office of national family firm Woolley & Co, admitted creating and backdating the letter.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor for dishonestly backdating enduring powers of attorney and claiming to have witnessed signatures “to save clients money” after an unblemished career of more than 40 years. He also failed to return money to a client for at least six years and used some of it for the benefit of another client.

A solicitor has been struck off for the second time and ordered to pay costs of almost £66,000 after dishonestly misleading mortgage lenders in order to service clients of a firm which was excluded from lenders’ panels. He also allowed his client account to be used as an escrow banking facility to lend credibility to dubious transactions involving diamonds and fine art.

Two partners at a high street firm have each been fined £35,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for multiple accounts rule breaches – very much at the higher end of the financial penalties it usually hands out. One was also found to have breached the money laundering regulations and both failed to act with integrity.