Steven Ronald Shepherd
Allegation / charges
Criminal Convictions
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Tribunal proceeded in the absence of the Respondent, who was in prison and had voluntarily declined to attend by telephone, and allowed the SRA to proceed on the Rule 7 Statement alone (withdrawing the Rule 5 Statement). The Respondent, a partner at Shepherd Evans admitted in 1984, had been convicted on 20 February 2015 of 8 counts of fraud by abuse of position and 1 count of false accounting, and sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment with £145,000 compensation and £700 prosecution costs. He had withdrawn approximately £145,000 from client account between 2009 and 2011, concealing it via falsified ledgers and forged documents, including misleading a personal injury client (Mr M). The Tribunal found dishonesty established (the offences had dishonesty as their mens rea and the sentencing judge made express findings of dishonesty), found breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6, and concluded there were no exceptional circumstances. The Respondent was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay £7,400 costs.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Offending continued over a significant period (April 2009 to July/November 2011), not a one-off
- All offences were dishonesty offences, deliberate, calculated and repeated
- Concealment of wrongdoing through falsified client ledgers and forged documents
- At least one vulnerable client (Mr M) was directly misled
- Harm caused to clients, the profession and his business partner
- Solicitor of approximately 25 years' experience who knew his conduct breached professional obligations
Mitigating factors:
- No previous convictions or disciplinary findings
- Pleaded guilty in the criminal proceedings
- Money was ultimately repaid in full (£145,000 plus costs)
- Suffered from a moderate to severe depressive episode at the time
- Asserted blackmail/threats and a gambling addiction as background context