Peter Barnett

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

Peter Barnett, a solicitor of over 20 years' standing, acted as 'escrow agent' in numerous 'bank advice' transactions between 1995 and 1998, receiving over US$40m and £300,000 into client account and earning £141,159.37 in profit costs. The Tribunal found the transactions were worthless and lacked commercial purpose, that no purchaser ever obtained the referenced funds, and that Barnett continued despite repeated warnings from the Law Society, banks and others. It expressly found dishonesty under the Twinsectra test, including deliberately deceitful conduct in vouching for Mr Ullah's trustworthiness to a bank while knowing Ullah was imprisoned for fraud. All allegations were found proved. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs with an interim payment of £10,000. His application to stay proceedings on Article 6 grounds was refused.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• No own-interest conflict
• No improper use of client money
• Truthful, non-misleading advertising

Aggravating factors:

• Continued involvement despite repeated warnings from the Law Society/OSS, banks and third parties
• Knew Mr Gibbins was involved in fraud (Salvation Army fraud) and that Mr Ullah had been convicted of fraud
• Motivated by lucrative earnings (profit costs of £141,159.37)
• Sent bank reference vouching for Mr Ullah's trustworthiness while knowing Ullah was serving a prison sentence for fraud
• Attempted to blame assistant solicitors for incriminating letters
• Lent his name and firm's name to add credibility to a dishonest business, facilitating major fraud

Mitigating factors:

• No shortage found in client account
• Made books of account and files available to inspectors without difficulty