Bernadette Paula Heywood

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

Bernadette Paula Heywood, a paralegal (non-solicitor) at Millichips Solicitors, failed to account to her employer for cash payments received from clients totalling £5,700.42 between November 2000 and September 2004. She issued handwritten receipts to clients but did not pass the cash to the firm's accounts department. She agreed to repay the funds and gave a charge over her home. She did not contest the allegation and did not attend. The Tribunal found the allegation substantiated but made no express finding of dishonesty. It made a Section 43 order restricting her employment in the profession and ordered her to pay costs subject to detailed assessment unless agreed.

Duties found breached:

• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Course of conduct over several years
• Issued receipts to clients but failed to pass cash to the accounts department
• Further investigation established an even larger amount of unaccounted cash receipts

Mitigating factors:

• Volunteered to make good the funds and agreed to a second charge over her home as security
• Did not contest the allegations and apologised
• Personal difficulties including relationship, financial and family problems