Peter Gray

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

Peter Matthew James Gray, an unregistered barrister who had been acting as a solicitor in the Djibouti v Boreh litigation, faced seven charges based on findings of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (which struck him off the Roll of Solicitors on 5 May 2021) and Flaux J's judgment. The charges concerned swearing misleading affidavits, allowing misleading submissions to the High Court, and sending misleading correspondence, all relating to concealment of a critical date error undermining terrorism allegations against Mr Boreh. The Tribunal, applying rE169 and the criminal standard, found Gray had not shown the SDT findings were inaccurate. It proceeded in his absence and found all seven charges proved, expressly finding he acted in a sustained and deliberate dishonest manner. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal ordered disbarment and costs of £24,654.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• Report serious misconduct of others
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty was sustained over a period of time, not a fleeting or momentary lapse
• Conduct was calculated and sophisticated and involved significant planning
• The High Court was seriously misled and the freezing injunction was wrongly granted
• Serious harm caused to the defendant Mr Boreh, whose assets were frozen and whose criminal conviction was unsafe

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings/history of good conduct
• Strong and impressive character references attesting to his integrity, conscientiousness and reputation
• Significant personal, emotional, professional and financial strain and adverse impact on his wellbeing (clinical psychologist report)
• Delay in proceedings exacerbated his anxiety
• Was working hard and under strain during the litigation