Owain Dwyryd Jones

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

Owain Dwyryd Jones, an assistant solicitor at Guthrie Jones & Jones, was convicted on 7 December 2000 at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on two counts of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception in respect of two cheques (£200 and £500) drawn on clients Mr and Mrs H, and sentenced to six months imprisonment on each count concurrently. The Tribunal found the allegation of conduct unbefitting a solicitor substantiated and declined to go behind the conviction. Given the convictions for dishonesty offences and custodial sentence, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £4,927.41.

Duties found breached:

• Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience

Aggravating factors:

• Breach of trust of clients who regarded him as a friend
• Attempted to attribute the diverting of the second cheque to the late senior partner, compromising his reputation
• Worked unsupervised and was entrusted to deal honestly with clients
• Served a custodial sentence

Mitigating factors:

• Young solicitor with detrimental effect on ability to support his young family
• Acquitted of ten similar charges
• Worked for solicitors' practices for about three years since conviction without complaints
• Relatively small amounts involved
• Expressed remorse and acknowledged unacceptable conduct