Philip John Bailey

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

The Respondent, admitted 1990, was convicted at Stafford Crown Court on 20 July 2006 of conspiracy to defraud after pleading not guilty, and sentenced to a 200-hour Community Punishment Order plus a £17,238 Confiscation Order. The sentencing judge found he had been deliberately dishonest, though the offence was an isolated transaction out of character. The Tribunal, which would not go behind a criminal conviction, found the allegation of conduct unbefitting a solicitor substantiated and, given the finding of dishonest behaviour, struck him off the Roll and ordered him to pay costs of £1,000.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated transaction found by sentencing judge to be completely out of character
• Only one offence committed compared to co-defendant
• Self-reported the conviction to The Law Society