Gary Ackinclose

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

Gary Ackinclose, a consultant solicitor, sent a client an email in November 2014 providing his own personal bank account details for payment of fees owed to the firm, altered an invoice outside the firm's accounting system, and received four direct payments (£900, £1,000, £1,000, £800) into his personal account. He gave misleading explanations to the firm (claiming the details were given mistakenly by phone while driving) and denied to the SRA, through solicitors, that he had created the amended invoice. He also continued practising at Andrew J Fenny & Co after 26 October 2017 without SRA approval, contrary to conditions on his practising certificate. The Tribunal found all five allegations proved beyond reasonable doubt, including dishonesty on allegations 1.1-1.4, and breaches of Principles 2, 6 and 7. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £25,395.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of time
• Motivated by personal financial benefit
• Concealment of wrongdoing, including wiping the firm's laptop data despite a specific request not to do so
• Deliberately misled the regulator and the firm
• Breach of position of trust and duty of candour to the firm
• Lack of insight; denied all allegations
• Experienced solicitor with direct control over his conduct

Mitigating factors:

• Monies were ultimately replaced/repaid, albeit not promptly
• No actual loss to the client or firm
• Previously good and lengthy (approx. 30 years) unblemished career with positive character references
• Working under significant pressure and fatigue at the material time