Matthew Howells

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

Matthew Howells, a solicitor admitted in 2018, was convicted on his guilty plea at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court of stalking (without fear/alarm/distress) Person A contrary to Section 2A(1) and (4) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, involving repeated unwanted contact and unsolicited gifts between 31 March and 23 June 2022. He received a 12-month Community Order, victim surcharge (£85), compensation (£500), prosecution costs (£144) and a 2-year Restraining Order. The SDT, dealing with the matter on the papers by Agreed Outcome, found his admissions properly made and that he breached Principles 2 and 5 of the SRA Principles 2019. Culpability was high; the Tribunal suspended him from practice for 6 months from 27 February 2025 and ordered him to pay agreed costs of £2,096.00. No finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No unlawful discrimination or harassment

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was planned and continued over a period of time
• Solely responsible for the circumstances of his misconduct
• Culpability assessed as high

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary history / exemplary prior record
• Early guilty plea and full cooperation with criminal and regulatory investigations
• Mental health difficulties / high anxiety at the time
• Engaged in therapy and steps to rehabilitate
• Significant personal and professional consequences already suffered
• Isolated incident at low end of seriousness; lowest-level sentence imposed by Magistrates' Court