Michael Edward Garstang

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

Michael Edward Garstang, a solicitor at Cartwright King, inappropriately requested and received £100 from Client A, submitted a claim to the Legal Aid Agency for Client A's case when a payment had already been received/claimed from the client, and later asked Client A to write a letter stating the £100 had been a gift. He admitted three instances of dishonesty. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by way of an Agreed Outcome, found the misconduct serious with no exceptional circumstances and ordered him struck off the Roll, plus costs of £16,950.

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Repeated dishonesty that was planned, deliberate and repeated
• Respondent must have known it was a material breach of his professional obligations
• Caused severe harm to the reputation of the legal profession which was foreseeable
• Misconduct involved a client and the handling of client money

Mitigating factors:

• Made full admissions
• Accepted the likely consequence of his actions
• Character reference provided