Sarinjit Singh Bahia

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

Sarinjit Singh Bahia, a solicitor and sole director/COLP/COFA of Consilium Legal Limited, admitted misconduct in preparing misleading estate accounts, retaining £27,698.10 of client money in his personal account causing a client account shortage, failing to account for £15,000 of trust loan interest, and misusing £13,560 of client money intended for SDLT. Dishonesty and lack of integrity allegations were withdrawn by the SRA. The Tribunal initially rejected two earlier proposed Agreed Outcomes as too lenient (given his prior disciplinary history in 2007 and 2019), but approved a final SOAF. The Tribunal found no express dishonesty (motivation unknown, careless conduct). It imposed a £15,000 fine (Level 3), a seven-year Restriction Order, and £20,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Previous regulatory history: appeared before the Tribunal twice before, in 2007 (severely reprimanded following assault conviction) and 2019 (fined £30,000)
• Repeated misconduct with sustained carelessness over preparation of estate accounts and accounting for client monies
• Possibility of future misconduct / propensity to misconduct

Mitigating factors:

• No loss or harm caused to clients and no income generated from the misconduct
• Client account shortages made good from the Respondent's own personal funds
• Cooperated with the SRA throughout and made open and frank admissions
• Tragic circumstances of the retainer (brother's death by suicide) causing emotional entanglement
• Undertook therapy, changed lifestyle, low risk of repetition
• Nieces/beneficiaries financially benefitted in excess of £60,000