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The High Court will hear an appeal by the Solicitors Regulation Authority later this month for tougher sanctions on two West Midlands solicitors, suspended for their involvement in a collapsed Brazilian property investment scheme. But the scheme’s liquidators have “reluctantly” decided not pursue legal action against their firm.

A personal injury firm was forced to sell its multi-track work at a “considerable” loss after the “sudden and unexpected” withdrawal of support from its bank, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has heard as it fined two partners and a non-lawyer partner for retaining unpaid professional disbursements in its office account.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last week struck off a solicitor who used more than £500,000 from the estates of deceased clients over seven years, mainly to play the property market and repay debts. His own brother complained to the SRA after the solicitor failed to administer the estate of his own late father.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal struck off 35% more solicitors in the last calendar year than the one before, its annual report has revealed. Meanwhile, the legal costs awarded to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for bringing the prosecutions rocketed from £1.7m to over £3m – an increase of 76%.

A solicitor with nearly 25 years’ experience has been struck off for dishonestly using client funds to prop up his business and failing to pass on to an RTA client the £73,500 due to her, after a “perfect storm” of circumstances put his firm in difficulties.