Priya Prashar

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

Priya Prashar, an assistant solicitor, was convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court of 23 counts of false accounting, one count of perverting the course of justice, and one count of theft, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment for systematically plundering client accounts and creating false documents during her employment. The Tribunal found the allegations substantiated (uncontested) and noted the sentencing judge's express findings of dishonesty. To protect the public and the reputation of the profession, she was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £2,889.44.

Duties found breached:

• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Convictions involving dishonesty (theft, false accounting, forgery)
• Breach of trust against vulnerable client
• Sought to blame others including clients, employer and secretary
• Accused a client of lying to the jury

Mitigating factors:

• Psychiatric report of Dr Sen (prepared prior to trial)
• Catastrophic personal consequences and uncertain future
• Significant debts