Malcolm John Colin Mackillop

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

Malcolm John Colin Mackillop, a sole practitioner and COLP/COFA of Archdeacon Russell & Co, admitted two allegations of misconduct involving dishonesty. First, on 8 December 2021 he misled Santander by stating completion would take place on 15 December 2021 and altering the Certificate of Title date, when completion had already occurred on 15 October 2021, to conceal his failure to secure mortgage funds. Second, on 28 April 2023 he provided inaccurate information on the Firm's PII proposal form by falsely denying it was subject of an SRA Forensic Investigation. The Tribunal approved an agreed outcome, finding the dishonest, deliberate misconduct of the highest level with no exceptional circumstances, and struck him off the Roll, ordering costs of £14,923.03.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Concealment of wrongdoing
• Two separate acts of dishonesty, not isolated or momentary
• Experienced solicitor (admitted 1975) holding COLP and COFA roles, aware of regulatory obligations
• Deliberate misconduct
• Potential financial benefit from withholding information from insurer

Mitigating factors:

• Hitherto unblemished 50-year career (not agreed by SRA)
• No benefit to the Respondent (not agreed)
• No financial or other harm to Client A or Santander (not agreed)
• No indication of ongoing risk to clients (not agreed)
• Two isolated incidents 16 months apart (not agreed)