Rodney Whiston-Dew

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

Following his conviction on indictment on 6 November 2017 at Southwark Crown Court for conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and acting with intent to prejudice or defraud HMRC, the Respondent (admitted 1988, no practising certificate since October 2008) was found to have breached Principles 1, 2 and 6. The conviction arose from a sophisticated fraudulent tax evasion scheme (2004-2007) involving a purported Brazilian reforestation investment, with the Respondent responsible for establishing trusts used to obfuscate proceeds. He received a 10-year custodial sentence and was disqualified as a company director. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers via an Agreed Outcome, found a very serious offence of dishonesty and ordered that the Respondent be struck off the Roll. No order for costs was made given his limited means as a serving prisoner.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Very serious offence of dishonesty reflected in significant term of imprisonment
• Vast sums of money involved
• Offence was sophisticated and at the upper end of the scale of seriousness per the trial judge
• Crown Court found him fully culpable

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent advanced mitigation (not endorsed by SRA) that he believed the conviction was incorrectly reached and was appealing conviction and sentence
• Respondent contended the trusts were established on advice of leading counsel