P J Warner

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

Two solicitors (admitted 2002) practising in partnership admitted failing to notify mortgagee lenders of material facts/act in clients' best interests (Practice Rules 1 and 6) and failing to supervise staff and a struck-off solicitor, Raphael Osili (Rule 13). Their conveyancing clerk and Head of Conveyancing, Pamela Warner, had backdated letters and provided them to the SRA's Forensic Investigation Officer intending to mislead. The Tribunal found allegations 2 and 3 proved against the solicitors (admitted) and allegation 4 proved against Warner. The two solicitors were each fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £12,000 costs each; Warner was made subject to a Section 43 order and ordered to pay £6,000 costs (costs assessed at £30,000 total, reduced from the £50,861.92 claimed). The Tribunal did not make an express finding of dishonesty, though it found Warner intended to mislead the investigator.

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• Failures permitted clear mortgage fraud to take place, with potential serious losses to lender clients
• Mortgage fraud was a well-appreciated risk at the time
• Lack of proper controls enabled a struck-off solicitor to continue trading in the firm's name
• Mrs Warner shifted her position repeatedly and gave inconsistent, unreliable accounts to the SRA

Mitigating factors:

• First and Second Respondents had previous good record and positive character references
• Neither was a conveyancer and they were naive/foolish rather than dishonest; no involvement in creating false or backdated documents
• They reported Osili to the police and relocated the firm to distance themselves from him
• Did not benefit financially from Osili's continued involvement
• Subsequent SRA investigation (August 2010) found no concerns with the renamed firm
• Genuine remorse, shame and acceptance of responsibility