Peter Kenneth Felton Gerber
Allegation / charges
Code of Conduct for Solicitors, REL's & RFL's 2019, Lack of Integrity, Recklessness, SRA Principles 2011, SRA Principles 2019
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Peter Kenneth Felton Gerber, a sole practitioner solicitor at Feltons Law (admitted 1991), faced six allegations relating to AML failures and accounts rule breaches. He admitted the factual context and accounts rule breaches but denied dishonesty, lack of integrity, and recklessness. The two dishonesty-related allegations were 1.1 (falsely declaring to insurers that fee-earners had received documented formal AML training) and 1.3 (falsely declaring to the SRA that the firm had a firm-wide risk assessment in place). The Tribunal expressly accepted that the Respondent had NOT been dishonest, finding he genuinely believed the declarations were true at the time. However, it found his conduct lacked integrity and was reckless. He was also found to have provided a banking facility (~£4.4m through client account) without an underlying transaction and retained client monies too long. He was fined £45,000 with practice restrictions.
Duties found breached:
Codes & rules applied
Duties engaged
- Act only on proper, lawful instructions
- Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
- Client-care and engagement terms
- Client confidentiality
- Competence
- Complaints procedure and handling
- Comply with and respect court orders
- Comply with rules of foreign jurisdictions
- Continuity and handover of representation
- Cooperate openly with regulators
- Costs and fee transparency to client
- Diligence and timeliness
- Disclose adverse law to the court
- Disclose material information to client
- Disclose referrals, commissions and benefits
- Fair dealing with unrepresented parties
- Fair, reasonable and lawful fees
- Full disclosure on ex parte applications
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Honour professional undertakings
- Keep client informed and respond promptly
- Maintain competence and CPD
- Manage conflict arising mid-matter
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- No acting against a former client
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
- No conflict between current clients
- No direct dealing with represented party
- No improper benefit, loan or bequest
- No improper communication with the court
- No improper fee-sharing or partnership
- No improper questioning of witnesses
- No improper solicitation or touting
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- No obstruction or victimisation of reporters
- No own-interest conflict
- No payments to witnesses on evidence
- No personal opinion or familiarity with court
- No prejudicial publicity for pending cases
- No standing bail or surety for client
- No taking unfair advantage
- No tampering with or coaching witnesses
- Not mislead the court
- Not mislead third parties or opponents
- Not misrepresent regulated status
- Pay instructed practitioners and agents
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Proper basis for allegations
- Proper termination and return of instructions
- Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
- Prosecutorial fairness and impartiality
- Protect capacity and vulnerable clients
- Protect legal professional privilege
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Safeguard documents and limit liens
- Self-report to the regulator
- Truthful, non-misleading advertising