Analiza Abella Kjaer

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

Sole practitioner Analiza Abella Kjaer received £132,000 in divorce settlement monies for her client ET into the firm's client account but failed to release the funds after authority was given on 17 December 2020, misusing £67,538.65 for unrelated purposes. On 25 January 2021 she misrepresented to ET that she lacked authority to release the funds when she had been given it. She failed to replace the client account shortage and wholly failed to cooperate with the SRA investigation, having vacated the firm's premises. The Tribunal proceeded in her absence, found all four allegations proved including two findings of dishonesty (breach of Principle 4), and ordered she be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £27,577.90.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Act in the client's best interests
• No conflict between current clients
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Misuse of client money
• Failure to account to client for £132,000
• Misrepresentation to client about authority to release funds
• Failure to cooperate with SRA investigation
• Client left without permanent residence and had to claim from Compensation Fund