Timothy James Penny

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

Timothy James Penny, an assistant solicitor in a prison law department, misled his client Mr SC into believing a compensation claim had been made and succeeded, when no claim had been commenced. He produced a forged letter purporting to be from the Criminal Appeal Office stating the Home Office was ordered to pay £16,500, and made false statements to his employer. The Tribunal found all three allegations proved to the highest standard and found dishonesty proved under the Twinsectra test. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £4,800 inclusive of VAT. The hearing proceeded in his absence.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Production of a forged letter purporting to be from the Criminal Appeal Office, which was blatant and deliberate
• Repeated dishonesty across three respects: misleading client, misleading employer, and providing a false document
• Client and his partner suffered distress and inconvenience, with partner potentially taking out a loan in expectation of non-existent money
• Failed to respond to SRA correspondence

Mitigating factors:

• Previous good character with no prior disciplinary findings
• Admitted the basic allegations and made some admissions to employer before dismissal
• Derived no personal benefit from the conduct
• Expressed remorse and shame
• Was suffering from stress at the material time (though unsupported by medical evidence)
• Well-liked by colleagues and clients