Stephen Michael Oakley

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

The respondent solicitor, a director and money laundering officer of Oakley and Davies Limited, was convicted on 16 November 2018 for failing to comply with Money Laundering Regulation 7(1)(b) when acting on a property purchase, and on 17 December 2018 for failing to surrender to bail. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by Agreed Outcome, found him entirely culpable; his convictions harmed the reputation of the profession. No dishonesty was alleged, but recklessness was found as an aggravating factor. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay agreed costs of £2,000.

Duties found breached:

• AML and crime-prevention compliance
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct resulted in a criminal conviction (considerable aggravating factor)
• Recklessness
• Four previous appearances before the Tribunal, including a three-year suspension imposed on 2 November 2011

Mitigating factors:

• No dishonesty alleged
• Self-reported the conviction as soon as it was permissible to do so