Paul Stott

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

Paul Stott, senior partner of Ingrams Solicitors, was found to have caused or permitted his insolvent firm to accept and misuse over £3.15m advanced by the Axiom Legal Financing Fund under a Litigation Funding Agreement, using the money for personal and practice debts rather than the eligible legal expenses required by the agreement, while ignoring clear indications of serious wrongdoing by the investment manager. He also failed to pay the monies into client account, misappropriated them, and improperly transferred £32,000 and £40,000 from client to office account in 2011 (covered by personal cheques he knew would bounce) to pay staff salaries. The Tribunal found all allegations proved beyond reasonable doubt and made express findings of dishonesty on every allegation. With no exceptional circumstances, he was struck off the Roll and ordered to make an interim costs payment of £100,000 with full costs subject to detailed assessment.

Duties found breached:

• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Proven dishonesty which was deliberate, calculated and repeated
• Misconduct continued over a significant period
• Breach of trust by accepting and misusing Axiom funding
• Improper withdrawal of client account money in disregard of regulations
• Attempt to conceal wrongdoing by placing cheques in client account that he knew would not be honoured
• Very little insight into misconduct
• Substantial harm caused to the Fund and investors (in excess of £4.5m) and to reputation of profession

Mitigating factors:

• Led to believe by DR that funds could be used as practice funding (though unsustainable once LFA signed)
• Replaced improperly taken client account funds fairly promptly
• Co-operated with the investigation and engaged with proceedings
• Positive character references