Charles Edward Nutter

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

The respondent, admitted in 1984, practised as Charles Nutter & Co. acting for a single debt-collection client. A Law Society inspection found his books were not in compliance with the Accounts Rules, that he failed to carry out reconciliations for about two and a half years, and that nine of fifteen requested files were not produced. Improper transfers of £3,973.71 from client to office account purportedly for eight bills of costs (which he could not document) caused a cash shortage of £3,898 on client account, which he did not rectify; a Compensation Fund payment of £2,023.50 was made. The Tribunal found all three allegations substantiated, regarding his account-keeping, misuse of clients' funds and overall attitude as entirely unacceptable. No express finding of dishonesty was made. He was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £4,451.25 (higher because he contested the allegations and they included the Investigation Accountant's costs).

Duties found breached:

• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Failure to rectify the shortage on client account despite indicating he would
• Misuse of clients' funds resulting in a successful claim against the Law Society's Compensation Fund
• Contested the allegations, increasing costs
• Failure to keep proper accounts over a prolonged period (about two and a half years)

Mitigating factors:

• Sums of money concerned were not great