Heather Roberts

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

Heather Roberts, a senior associate solicitor at Irwin Mitchell LLP, was found to have dishonestly and selectively deleted five email chains from the firm's case management system on 29 December 2021 to conceal her involvement in the drafting/amendment of a client's Particulars of Claim that was the subject of a complaint, and to deflect blame onto a junior colleague she supervised. The Tribunal applied the Ivey test and found express dishonesty, along with breaches of Principles 2, 4 and 5 and Paragraph 3.5(a) of the Code. Despite the usual starting point of strike-off for dishonesty, the Tribunal (treating the matter as a limited, momentary lapse with strong mitigation) suspended her from practice for 12 months.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Report serious misconduct of others
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• High culpability - experienced solicitor directly responsible for her actions
• Element of basic planning in deciding to delete emails to hide involvement
• Motivated to deflect blame onto a junior colleague she supervised and to cast herself in a better light
• Selective deletion - retained the email favourable to her while deleting unfavourable ones
• Equivocal insight (suggested she would act differently merely to avoid appearing before the Tribunal)

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished career of exemplary character
• Numerous glowing character references; held in high regard by colleagues and clients
• Isolated/spontaneous incident occurring nearly 5 years prior
• No financial gain and no actual harm to the client
• Adverse mental health (anxiety/depressive illness) and significant work pressure at the relevant time
• Minimal risk of repetition; moved to a supportive new firm
• Attended remedial webinars on integrity and the SRA Code of Conduct showing some insight