Derek Hayward

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

Derek Hayward, an experienced criminal defence and duty solicitor, passed money to four clients detained in the custody suite at Medway Police Station on four occasions between 23 October and 29 November 2019, attempting to conceal the transfers from custody officers despite knowing the proper procedure required custody officer authorisation. He admitted the allegation and admitted dishonesty. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by agreed outcome, found his admissions properly made and found no exceptional circumstances to depart from striking off. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £3,419.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Repeated dishonesty over 5-6 weeks involving four clients
• Abuse of trust placed in him by the police
• Concealment of wrongdoing
• Misconduct he knew materially breached his obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• Deliberate and planned actions
• Highly experienced solicitor who knew the conduct was improper
• Not an isolated incident or one-off 'moment of madness'

Mitigating factors:

• Cooperation with the SRA investigation
• Open and frank admissions from the outset
• Expressed shame and embarrassment
• Asserted no personal gain and money likely to help clients get home (mitigation not endorsed by SRA)