Christopher Michael Haddock

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

Mr Haddock, a partner, COLP and COFA, accepted a £25,000 loan from his client Mr Bell, paid it into the firm's client account, then drew up a backdated agreement (January 2018, dated 10 November 2017) purporting the funds were a fixed fee for legal work, to conceal the loan from the SRA. The Tribunal found all allegations proved including dishonesty on allegations 1.2 and 1.3. The Tribunal rejected his claim that the recorded discussion of the loan was a 'charade' and found his evidence incapable of belief. No exceptional circumstances under Sharma/James existed. He was struck off. No order for costs was made (costs of £28,827 claimed) solely due to his means; the Tribunal would otherwise have ordered costs as claimed.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Integrity
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Misconduct deliberate and calculated
• Blamed Mr and Mrs Bell by accusing them of fabricating accounts and implied blame on Ms Grainger
• Knew he was in material breach of professional obligations
• Misled the SRA via fake backdated agreement during investigation
• Breach of client trust
• Highly experienced solicitor