Biplab Kumar Poddar

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

Biplab Kumar Poddar, a solicitor and COLP at Hamlet Solicitors LLP whose practice focused on immigration, was found to have involved his firm in a high-value cross-border 'international transaction' ($80m financial instrument), accepting £122,160.87 into client account and paying out £112,000 to various third parties without adequate due diligence, no underlying legal work, and ignoring the MLR 2007 and the firm's AML policy. The transaction bore the hallmarks of being dubious (poorly drafted, error-riddled documents, unidentified parties, funds from an unverified third party). He also improperly paid £30,007.45 from conveyancing sale proceeds to a third-party company, providing a banking facility. The Tribunal found breaches of Principles 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8, Outcome 7.5 and Rule 14.5 SARs. It found a lack of integrity but expressly noted dishonesty was NOT alleged. Culpability was assessed as high and potential harm very high. The Tribunal imposed an indefinite suspension (rejecting strike-off) and ordered costs of £26,000. The Respondent's own costs claim of £90,725 plus VAT was refused. An appeal to Lang J was dismissed on 20 October 2021.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Actions were deliberate and calculated, in pursuit of personal gain (a large fee)
• Wilful disregard of the MLR 2007 and the firm's own AML policy in favour of subjective judgment
• Failure to protect the public; very high potential for harm given the multi-million dollar transaction
• No genuine insight or frank admissions; Respondent said he would take the same course again
• Breach of obligation to protect the public

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings; hitherto unblemished career of over 10 years serving 1000+ clients
• Full cooperation with the SRA and unrestricted access to files
• No actual loss caused and no client complaints
• Honesty never in question; no dishonesty alleged
• Ceased accepting conveyancing/international transaction instructions and undertook further training
• Personal stress due to illness and work pressure at the material time