Mahesh Chouhan
Allegation / charges
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Mr Chouhan, a sole practitioner, admitted four allegations including dishonesty. Over nearly three years he repeatedly gave a client false information that debt-recovery proceedings had been issued and were ongoing, taking £485 in payments, when no claim had ever been issued. He held himself out as a practising solicitor after his practising certificate was suspended and expired, and gave false information to the SRA denying he had undertaken legal work or contacted clients. He also breached the Accounts Rules by mixing client money in a business account. The Tribunal approved the agreed outcome, finding high culpability and serious dishonesty, and struck him off the Roll with costs of £1,500.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Dishonest conduct repeated over a lengthy period
- Took money from client for proceedings that were never issued
- Held himself out as a practising solicitor while certificate suspended/expired
- Provided false information to the SRA during its investigation
Mitigating factors:
- Expressed remorse and stated conduct was out of character
- Suffering significant health issues and stress; marriage broke down leading to divorce
- Cooperated by admitting all allegations and agreeing outcome