C C Okirie and O Okenla

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

Two partners of Okirie & Co faced discipline following an intervention. The First Respondent (Okirie) was found, applying Twinsectra, to have acted dishonestly: he wrote a £6,000 client account cheque to buy a car for himself, made 14 unexplained round-sum transfers totalling £53,645 from client to office account, and failed to disclose substantial cashback incentives (£63,050 and £65,000) to the lender client Birmingham Midshires in conveyancing transactions where the purchaser was his son. He was also found to have kept defective accounting records and failed to supervise adequately. He was struck off and ordered to pay £9,133.46 costs. The Second Respondent (Okenla), held out as a partner but with almost no actual involvement and out of the country for much of the period, admitted the accounting, transfer, supervision and undertaking allegations on a strict-liability basis; no dishonesty was alleged against him. He was reprimanded and ordered to pay £500 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Disclose material information to client
• No improper use of client money
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• Supervise staff and delegated work
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty in the course of practice in relation to clients' money
• Use of client funds for personal car purchase
• Failure to report incentives where purchaser was the First Respondent's own son
• Substantial sums involved (£53,645 in transfers; large undisclosed incentives)
• Failure to respond to regulator correspondence/Notices

Mitigating factors:

• Second Respondent held out as partner with minimal actual involvement
• Second Respondent out of the country during much of the relevant period
• Second Respondent had no knowledge of accounting breaches and caused no loss to clients
• Second Respondent attended hearing and faced matters; positive testimonials
• Second Respondent's difficult financial and family circumstances