Legal Services

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has suspended the owner of a London law firm whose “failings” resulted in two fraudulent property transactions.

In the first, Nirosha Jayawardena was able to get the money back after she was alerted to the fraud, but the proceeds of the second were not recovered.

A struck-off solicitor who issues “spurious applications and claims” in the names of “innocent litigants” has failed in his appeal against a 12-month prison sentence for contempt.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/struck-off-conspiracy-theorist-solicitor-jailed-for-contempt

A Leeds solicitor has been fined after he acted for the buyer and seller of schemes that are now subject to a Serious Fraud Office investigation.

https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/2108767-senior-property-lawyer-fined-for-conflicts-of-interest-in-failed-investment-schemes

A solicitor who described a property developer currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office as his law firm’s “best client” has been fined £45,000 for misconduct.

The SRA Compensation Fund has paid out over £2.7m to clients of the law firm operated by Christopher Michael Bilmes, a solicitor jailed for fraud last month.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/jailed-solicitors-fraud-has-cost-profession-2-7m-so-far

The need for a “strengthened and harmonised regulatory approach” to tackle the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) is being probed by the Legal Services Board.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/lsb-looks-to-beef-up-regulatory-response-to-misuse-of-ndas

The November 2021 cyber-attack on the Simplify Group – the country’s largest conveyancing business – cost it £6.8m and also suppressed fee income, its annual report has shown.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/cyber-attack-cost-conveyancing-giant-7m-plus-lost-business

Former Banbridge solicitor Paul Downey has avoided jail after admitting he took over £70,000 from a dead client’s estate to fund the running of his practice.

https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/former-northern-ireland-solicitor-avoids-jail-over-ps70k-fraud

A solicitor from East Sussex has been jailed for deceiving clients and stealing more than £1.7 million.

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2023-04-14/former-solicitor-who-stole-17-million-from-clients-jailed-for-fraud

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) expects to use its proposed new power to demand information from solicitors about economic crime several hundred times a year, it has emerged.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/sra-to-use-new-economic-crime-power-hundreds-of-times-a-year