Astrid Halberstadt-Twum & Joseph Twum

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

Both Respondents were convicted in July 2018 of conspiracy to defraud the Legal Aid Agency and of acts intended to pervert the course of justice, with the First Respondent (a solicitor and firm principal) sentenced to 3 years and the Second Respondent (the firm's practice manager/COFA, unadmitted) to 2.5 years. The SDT, proceeding in their absence, found Allegation 1.1 proved (breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6) noting the convictions involved dishonesty, and Allegation 1.2 (failure to report convictions) proved as breaches of Principles 6 and 7 but not Principle 2. The First Respondent was struck off; the Second Respondent was made subject to a section 43 order. They were ordered jointly and severally to pay costs of £3,852.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct involved commission of two serious criminal offences
• Conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of at least four years
• Concealment of wrongdoing
• Breach of trust placed in legal aid practitioners
• Both Respondents very experienced legal professionals
• Knew or ought to have known conduct breached obligations to public and profession

Mitigating factors:

• None identified by the Tribunal