Syed Suhail Abbas Sibtain

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

The Respondent, a solicitor at Thursfields Solicitors, created and backdated two letters: one on 3 October 2023 sent to opposing solicitors (backdated to 24 July 2023 to appear an acknowledgment of service had been sent earlier), and a second on 6 October 2023 (by overwriting an unrelated July 2023 document) to mislead his employer during the investigation. He admitted the allegations and that he acted dishonestly. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers via an Agreed Outcome, found serious dishonesty with no exceptional circumstances and struck him off the Roll, ordering costs of £5,000.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Experienced solicitor
• Misconduct involved dishonesty
• Misconduct was deliberate and repeated
• Involved concealment of wrongdoing which could have impacted ongoing litigation
• Breach of a position of trust
• Knew or ought to have known conduct breached obligations to protect the public and reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Open and frank admissions at an early stage and cooperation with the SRA
• No prior regulatory/disciplinary history
• (Non-agreed) mental health deterioration, family bereavements, health issues, financial and workload pressures at the time