Drakens Mukoro

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

First Respondent, a solicitor supervising the mental health department at Gans & Co, knowingly created false attendance notes and altered/added documents to 15 legal aid files to make it appear FTT hearings had taken place when they had not, causing at least £11,160 to be fraudulently claimed from the Legal Aid Agency between 2011 and 2014. The Tribunal found his earlier admissions that the notes were in his handwriting, rejected his later forgery/conspiracy defence, and found allegations 1.1 and 1.2 proved beyond reasonable doubt, including dishonesty (Ivey test). He was struck off and ordered to pay £38,142.40 costs. The Second Respondent firm admitted inadequate supervision systems, breaching Principles 6 and 8 and Outcomes 7.2 and 7.8; it was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated throughout employment
• Conduct was planned (tearing references off letters, amending dates on documents)
• Attempted to cover his tracks by amending and defacing documents
• Fundamental breach of trust placed in him by the Firm
• Caused colossal reputational harm and financial harm to former employer
• Advanced a fanciful conspiracy defence rejected in its entirety

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished career (insufficient to ameliorate seriousness)
• Second Respondent took remedial steps to strengthen systems and showed remorse