Allan Ntata

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

Allan Ntata, an unregistered barrister and member of Middle Temple, admitted three charges. In Malawi he pleaded guilty to possession of 38.1g of Indian Hemp and attempting to export it without a licence, and was fined a total of MK100,000. He failed to report either the charges or convictions to the BSB. The Tribunal could not go behind the convictions (rE169.1). For the criminal conduct (Group E, middle range) he was suspended for 3 months. For the reporting failures (Group L, lower range), found inadvertent with low culpability and no harm, he received advice as to future conduct and a reprimand. No finding of dishonesty was made. Ordered to pay £250 costs by instalments.

Duties found breached:

• Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Self-report to the regulator

Aggravating factors:

• Failure to report the conviction promptly to the Regulator (noted but care taken to avoid double-counting)

Mitigating factors:

• One-off, out-of-character incident with no repeat
• Previous good character with no other regulatory breaches
• No custodial sentence and Malawian fines paid
• Admitted the offences and the BSB charges and co-operated with the BSB
• Genuine remorse
• Supportive character references
• Reporting failure was inadvertent rather than deliberate
• Comparatively short period during which the Regulator was unaware
• No element of gain and no risk to the public