Prince Fomba Goba & Waqas Hassan & Syed Rafaqat Hussain & Bright Arrey Arrey-Mbi

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

The SRA brought allegations against four respondents connected with the firm PG Solicitors trading as Edward Marshall. The First Respondent (Goba, sole equity partner/COLP/COFA) and Second Respondent (Hassan, RFL) were found to have permitted a client account shortage of £472,320, failed to rectify it, made 14 unauthorised payments totalling £172,320 from client account to an account controlled by Yawar Ali Shah (a disbarred, convicted fraudster), personally received payments mixed with client monies, and provided forged bank statements and misleading information to the SRA. The Tribunal found all allegations, including dishonesty (applying Ivey), proved on the balance of probabilities against R1 and R2 in their absence, and struck them both off the Roll, ordering costs of £54,905 jointly and severally. The allegations against the Third Respondent (Hussain) were dismissed as he had left the firm in 2018 and worked full-time as a security guard, and against the Fourth Respondent (Arrey-Mbi) because he was found to be a 'paper partner' only with no genuine managerial or financial control; the partnership agreement was found to be a sham device to dupe mortgage lenders. No order as to costs for R3 and R4.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Advise objectively, not a mere conduit
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Firm governance, systems and compliance

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty proved
• Repeated misconduct, not a fleeting or momentary lapse, over a lengthy period
• Use of forged documents to mislead the regulator
• Improper payments of client money to Mr Shah, a convicted fraudster
• Failure to engage with the proceedings