Decision record
Anthony David Willis
Allegation / charges
Breaches, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Anthony David Willis, a sole practitioner solicitor, faced five allegations relating to accounting failures, failure to submit Accountant's Reports, failure to cooperate with the LCS/SRA, failure to comply with Adjudicator decisions (compensating clients Dr K, Mrs G, Miss F), and failure to honour an undertaking to pay a £200 court fee. The Tribunal found all allegations substantiated. No dishonesty was alleged or found. Given his repeated similar misconduct (following a February 2008 finding), but absent dishonesty, the Tribunal imposed an indefinite suspension rather than removal from the Roll, and ordered reduced costs of £2,000 given his means (applying D'Souza).
Duties found breached:
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No conflict between current clients
- Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
- Honour professional undertakings
Aggravating factors:
- Repetition of conduct previously found substantiated by the Tribunal on 26 February 2008
- A catalogue of failure and abstention from duty
- Failure to comply with multiple Adjudicator decisions and to compensate clients
Mitigating factors:
- No dishonesty alleged or found
- Severely constrained financial circumstances, unable to work for over a year and in receipt of benefits