Dawson John Hanson

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

The Respondent, admitted in 1974 and formerly a partner at Eddowes, Simm and Waldron, was convicted on 4 January 2010 at Nottingham Crown Court of four counts of false accounting, one count of dishonestly making false representations, and ten counts relating to the proceeds of crime, receiving suspended prison sentences. An SRA investigation found improper payments of £45,000 from client account in the matter of W deceased, causing a cash shortage. The Tribunal, relying on the certificate of conviction, found the allegation proved that he acted with a lack of integrity and in a way likely to diminish public trust. Given the seriousness of his criminal convictions and four previous Tribunal findings, he was struck off the Roll. The hearing proceeded in his absence.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Seriousness of criminal convictions for dishonesty offences
• Four previous disciplinary findings against him at the Tribunal

Mitigating factors:

• Sentencing judge accepted it was not a typical case of a dishonest solicitor lining his pockets; misfortune and mismanagement leading to a large insurance premium was the genesis
• He admitted the offences
• Representations from his wife and adult children