Keith Freer

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

Keith Freer, a solicitor and partner at Widdows Mason, was found to have misappropriated £87,892.13 from client account over approximately four years (2007-2011), using suspense ledgers in the name 'Mr W Mason' to siphon client money into office account to prop up the financially struggling firm. The Tribunal found this dishonest under the Twinsectra test. He was also found to have made a loan to client MGC creating a conflict, jointly purchased land with client JY, acted for both lender and borrower on a loan agreement and individual mortgage, acted where his own interests conflicted with his client's, and caused a misleading bill of costs to be raised addressed to a company. The Respondent did not attend and the matter proceeded in his absence. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay agreed costs of £19,500.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty was deliberate, calculated and repeated over approximately 4 years
• 163 transactions misappropriating client monies
• Abuse of position of trust as partner
• Attempted to conceal wrongdoing through use of suspense ledgers in clients' names
• Failed to repay any of the monies improperly taken
• Limited insight; did not accept misappropriation was dishonest
• Very experienced solicitor (qualified almost 25 years, partner 13 years)

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished career
• Cooperated with the investigation
• Made admissions to allegation 1.1 and accepted misappropriation from the outset
• Firm was in genuine financial difficulty due to financial crisis and collapse of RBS
• Attempted to remove name from roll voluntarily