Devandran Karunakaran

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Mr Karunakaran, a solicitor practising as a foreign lawyer in Singapore, was convicted in 2019 of four offences (three of outraging the modesty of women and one of using threatening/abusive words to a bar manager) arising from a drunken incident on 16 May 2018, with three further offences taken into consideration. The SDT found the offences against the three women were sexually motivated (in pursuit of sexual gratification) and that he had invoked his status as a lawyer to threaten the bar manager's job. It found breaches of Principles 2 (integrity) and 6 of the SRA Overseas Principles 2013. No dishonesty was alleged or found - only lack of integrity. The Tribunal refused the SRA's application to make submissions on sanction. It imposed a fine of £9,000 and ordered costs of £23,550.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Criminal offences were involved (four convictions plus three offences taken into consideration in Singapore)
• Conduct was deliberate (not accidental) and repeated, though on the same occasion
• Sexual motivation found in offences against the three women
• Sought to put blame on the bar manager (Mr D), showing incomplete insight
• Knew or ought to have known the conduct breached his obligation to protect the reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Wrote letters of apology to the complainants
• Self-reported the matter to the SRA
• Single episode of relatively brief duration against a previously unblemished career
• Some degree of insight, though incomplete
• Co-operated and engaged with the SRA
• Made some admissions
• Unlikely to be any repeat of the conduct
• Personal mitigation, supportive testimonials, and delay in proceedings; work as a solicitor never called into question