Dominic Leon Macknight

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

Dominic Leon Macknight, sole director, COLP and COFA of Lawson Taylor Solicitors Limited, admitted all four allegations, including dishonesty. Between November 2021 and September 2022 he made improper transfers from client account to office account totalling £16,308.00 (including £4,600 he knew did not belong to the firm), creating a cash shortage he never replaced. He provided inaccurate/misleading explanations to the SRA's forensic investigator and failed to cooperate with the SRA and intervention agents, and failed to ensure reconciliations were completed at least every five weeks (none since August 2021). The Tribunal found all allegations proved and the admission of dishonesty properly made. Finding no exceptional circumstances, it struck the Respondent off the Roll. The Applicant sought costs of £9,330.10 but, given the Respondent's insufficient means, no order for costs was made.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct was planned, deliberate and dishonest
• Repeated over a considerable period of time
• Respondent had sole and direct control of the withdrawals
• Deliberately misled the regulator and failed to cooperate
• Caused serious harm to clients and the reputation of the profession
• Cash shortage of £16,308.00 never replaced

Mitigating factors:

• Some genuine insight shown by admitting the misconduct, though admissions made at a very late stage
• No previous disciplinary matters