Katherine Juliet Gadsby

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

The Respondent, an experienced solicitor handling a Right to Buy purchase, continued acting after realising her client was ineligible (resident in New Zealand), forged the client's signature on the counterpart lease, and concealed emails when producing the conveyancing file under a Production Order. She pleaded guilty to three criminal offences and received a custodial sentence later varied on appeal to 8 months suspended. The Tribunal found all allegations proved beyond reasonable doubt, found her conduct clearly dishonest with misconduct at the highest level, found no exceptional circumstances under SRA v Sharma, and ordered her struck off plus costs of £2,500.

Duties found breached:

• Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
• No taking unfair advantage
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was dishonest
• Commission of criminal offences
• Breach of trust
• Substantial impact on reputation of the profession and public
• Great departure from standards of integrity, probity and trustworthiness
• Attempt to conceal evidence by failing to produce the full conveyancing file
• Experienced solicitor who could and should have stopped the misconduct

Mitigating factors:

• Misconduct of brief duration
• Previously unblemished career
• Early guilty plea at Crown Court and before the Tribunal
• No financial benefit to the Respondent
• Motivation was misplaced loyalty to client