Robert Hugh Vane

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

The respondent, a young solicitor at the start of his career, failed to make true disclosure to prospective new employers and compounded this by writing and signing a letter purporting to come from representatives of his previous employers, providing a false reference. He also failed to reply to correspondence from the Solicitors Complaints Bureau. The allegations were not contested and found substantiated. Despite his remorse, youth, inexperience, and the pressures he was under, the Tribunal ordered that he be struck off the Roll of Solicitors and pay fixed costs.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Complaints procedure and handling

Aggravating factors:

• Fraudulent/deceitful conduct involving a forged reference letter
• Failed to make true disclosure to new employers
• Compounded matters by signing a letter purporting to be from previous employers

Mitigating factors:

• Extreme youth and inexperience
• At the very start of his career
• Appeared before the Tribunal and acknowledged his actions were foolish and stupid
• Great remorse
• Under considerable pressure
• Coming to the end of an unhappy and unsatisfactory relationship with his employers
• Learned a salutary lesson
• Allegations not contested