Stephen Harper

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

Stephen Andrew Harper, sole principal of Antons Solicitors, was found guilty of professional misconduct over his handling of the AJ Stuart Trust. Over roughly four years he failed to finalise the Trust's tax compliance work (resulting in repeated HMRC penalties), unconscionably delayed and failed to wind up the Trust, failed to deal with mis-registered Aviva shares, accepted instructions beyond his competence, and did not tell the client he had ceased to practise. No dishonesty was found. The Tribunal censured him and restricted his practising certificate for an aggregate three years to acting as a qualified assistant under approved supervision, and found him liable for expenses. A later compensation hearing made no award to the Secondary Complainer (the AJ Stuart Trust), as no quantifiable loss to the Trust was established.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• No improper communication with the court
• No improper use of client money
• No taking unfair advantage
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Course of inaction persisted for around four years despite multiple opportunities to remedy
• Conduct likely to damage the reputation of the profession and could be a danger to the public
• No information available to judge insight or remorse

Mitigating factors:

• No previous conduct findings on record
• Cooperated with the Fiscal and entered into a Joint Minute
• Conduct not at the most serious end of the spectrum