Angela Caroline Hudson

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

Angela Caroline Hudson, a solicitor, was convicted on 7 March 2017 at Cambridge Magistrates Court of an offence under sections 44 and 58 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 for repeatedly contacting a client by mobile phone while he was in prison (102 texts over 2.5 months). She received a 4-month custodial sentence suspended for 24 months. The Tribunal found she breached Principles 1, 2 and 6, including a failure to act with integrity, but made no finding of dishonesty. Her culpability was assessed as low. A recusal application was refused. The Tribunal found the case fell at the boundary between strike-off and suspension and imposed an 18-month suspension followed by an 18-month restriction barring sole practice, plus costs of £3,230.30.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Criminal conviction
• Conduct sustained over a 2.5 month period (102 text messages)
• Ought reasonably to have known her actions breached obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• A custodial (suspended) sentence had been imposed, indicating a very serious matter

Mitigating factors:

• Conduct related to a single client whom she believed was in genuine fear for his life
• Contact initiated by the client
• Previously unblemished record
• Self-reported to the SRA
• Co-operated with the police and pleaded guilty
• Showed genuine insight, remorse and made open and frank admissions
• Voluntarily ceased the communication before being discovered
• Low culpability; acted naively under intense pressure while inexperienced at running a practice
• Excellent character references; conduct out of character; low risk of repetition