Nicholas St John Gething

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

The Respondent, an experienced solicitor, re-dated copies of Fixed and Floating Charges over two properties (Transactions A and B) using Tipp-Ex and manuscript alterations, and submitted them as certified true copies to the Registrar of Companies to make it appear they had been delivered within the statutory 21-day time limit, when the original registration applications had been rejected and the time limit expired. He failed to apply to court for an extension and failed to obtain consent from clients or the Mortgage Lender. He admitted all allegations including dishonesty. The Tribunal found breaches of Principles 2, 4, 5 and 6 and made an express finding of dishonesty under the Ivey test. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered him to pay agreed costs of £5,731.50.

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Acted dishonestly on two occasions within a two-week period
• Conduct was deliberate and repeated
• Concealed behaviour from the Registrar of Companies, clients and Mortgage Lender despite being told by a colleague that consent was required
• Ought reasonably to have known conduct breached obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Incidents took place over a short period of two weeks
• Previously unblemished record
• Good character references
• Subsequently made frank admissions in the proceedings
• Cooperated with regulator and proceedings