Matthew Charles Curtis

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

Matthew Charles Curtis, admitted 2009, fabricated two documents purporting to be from Companies House and Halton Borough Council, gave them to his client (Beechwood West Community Centre) representing them as genuine, and accepted a conditional caution from Cheshire Police for making/supplying an article for use in fraud. He did not attend and admitted all allegations including dishonesty. The Tribunal found all allegations proved beyond reasonable doubt, including dishonesty under the Twinsectra test. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £3,000.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Integrity
• No taking unfair advantage
• Act in the client's best interests
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty proved
• Criminal offence for which he received a conditional caution
• Deliberate, repeated and calculated misconduct over a period of about seven months
• Breach of position of trust as the Community Centre's solicitor
• Fabrication of more than one document
• Significant harm - left licensed premises without a licensee and caused reputational and business harm
• Fairly sophisticated conduct (forged documents)
• No apology or genuine insight

Mitigating factors:

• Repaid all fees to the client
• Open and frank admissions at an early stage
• Some cooperation with the investigating body
• Actions not motivated by personal gain