John Andrew Blake

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

John Andrew Blake, admitted 1988, practised at Cannon Silver Quastel until March 1994. An inspection revealed a client account shortfall of £390,404.70, comprising misuse of property sale proceeds (£264,765), breach of undertaking to Coutts & Co (£56,118.82), misuse of stakeholder monies (£55,000), a debit balance (£7,500) and unallocated payments (£7,020.88). He breached undertakings, misused client and stakeholder funds, failed to account to a client, and filed a bare denial defence amounting to an abuse of court process. The respondent did not attend; his adjournment request was refused. The Tribunal accepted he had adopted a wholly dishonest course of conduct, found all allegations substantiated, struck him off the Roll, and ordered him to pay costs of £966.80 plus the Investigation Accountant's charges of £5,251.83.

Duties found breached:

• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• Act only on proper, lawful instructions
• Honour professional undertakings
• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• No improper use of client money
• No taking unfair advantage

Aggravating factors:

• Immediate loss caused to clients
• Large client account shortfall exceeding £390,000
• Wholly dishonest course of conduct
• Serious and irreparable damage to the reputation of the profession