Geoffrey Martin Signey

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

Geoffrey Martin Signey, admitted in 1972, was sole director/principal of Signey Law Limited, a dormant firm in the Assigned Risks Pool. In February 2012 he sold his shares for £1 to C Ltd, a company controlled by a non-solicitor (Mr X), without making any checks, and failed to notify the SRA. He signed a funding application form in blank (later populated with false information) and a Litigation Funding Agreement with the Axiom Fund, again without due diligence, and caused/permitted the firm to accept and use £4,778,803 of Axiom funds, much of which was misapplied (e.g. £300,000 to Tangerine in New Zealand, £360,000 to M Ltd, and Mr X's personal expenses) contrary to the agreement. The Tribunal found allegations 1.1-1.6 proved (all admitted, including recklessness), applying the objective integrity test from Williams v SRA (not Malins). Dishonesty was alleged only in allegation 1.9; the Respondent initially admitted but later withdrew his admission of dishonesty, and the Tribunal treated it as denied. The provided text ends at allegation 1.7, so the Tribunal's findings on dishonesty (allegation 1.9) and the sanction are not contained in the excerpt. No express dishonesty finding appears in the text supplied.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No improper use of client money
• Not misrepresent regulated status
• Proper basis for allegations
• Self-report to the regulator