Simon Sui Ping Hsu

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

Simon Sui Ping Hsu, a consultant solicitor at Swan and Dale LLP dealing with conveyancing, admitted all allegations via an Agreed Outcome. On the purchase of 3 W Road for client Ms W, he told her £40,000 was needed for SDLT when only £21,250 was paid, provided a completion statement differing from the one held on file, transferred £18,199 of client money to WCS (an entity unknown to the client) without authority, took £700 cash that was never recorded or paid into client account, and misappropriated/misused client funds. He also failed to cooperate with the SRA investigation and misled the SRA about his whereabouts, falsely claiming he was overseas caring for his critically ill mother when bank records showed he was in London. The Tribunal found this a serious case aggravated by two admissions of dishonesty, found no exceptional circumstances (per Sharma/James), and ordered him struck off and to pay costs of £35,171.72.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Two admitted instances of dishonesty
• Repeatedly used the claimed ill-health of his mother as a shield to deflect scrutiny by his regulator
• Repeated failure to provide a telephone contact number or answer specific questions
• Failure to provide any explanation of his conduct when invited to do so

Mitigating factors:

• Now retired from practice due to mental health issues and ill health of his elderly mother
• Suffering from anxiety due to his mother's ill health, impacting cooperation
• Fully complied with all Tribunal directions
• Admitted the allegations in full, including dishonesty, and agreed to pay costs without dispute