Rehana Saeed

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

Mrs Saeed, a solicitor at Carter Devile, admitted failing to scrutinise the source of third party funds in two conveyancing transactions (Properties A and B), breaching AML requirements and Principles 6, 7 and 8. She partly admitted failing to update/misleading lenders about the purchase price balance. The Tribunal found lack of integrity (Principle 2) only in relation to allegation 1.5 (Property B), where after receiving an Authority Letter she knew funds were coming from third parties yet failed to update the lender contrary to an undertaking. The Tribunal did not find dishonesty. It rejected the integrity allegations for 1.3 and 1.4, accepting her belief that the funds belonged to the sole owner. She was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £12,000 costs (reduced from £34,905 claimed due to admissions, successful defences and limited means).

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct was repeated
• Prior Regulatory Settlement Agreement (2016 rebuke and £2,000 fine) and conditions on practising certificate should have heightened her diligence
• Material breach of obligation to protect the public and reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Demonstrated insight and remorse
• Made significant admissions from the outset and cooperated fully
• Self-reported concerns to the SRA
• Undertook relevant training and introduced compliance procedures at the Firm
• Inexperienced in this type of conveyancing and lacked AML knowledge
• Unblemished conduct since with unconditional practising certificates