John Richard Killington

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

John Richard Killington, a sole practitioner and COLP/COFA at Brown and Emery Solicitors, was the sole Executor of the Estate of the late Mrs GP whose residuary estate was left to six charities. He made unsecured loans totalling £370,383.01 from estate funds to two unrelated conveyancing clients (Miss W and Mr and Mrs B) to complete their purchases when mortgage funds were not available, concealed this from beneficiaries via vague ledger entries and by claiming bridging finance was provided personally, delayed administering the estate (including a 3½ year delay in selling Tesco shares which dropped in value ~50%), continued acting as Executor despite awareness of potential negligence claims and failed to notify insurers timely, and failed as COLP/COFA to report material breaches to the SRA. The Tribunal found all allegations proved, including dishonesty applying the Ivey test. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £33,931.98.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Act only on proper, lawful instructions
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper benefit, loan or bequest
• No improper use of client money
• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest conduct
• Conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a long period of time
• Took advantage of a deceased client and his position as Executor, depriving charities of funds relied upon for survival
• Concealed conduct from beneficiaries and from Mr and Mrs B
• Caused immense harm and ought to have known it materially breached obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• Limited insight and no recognition of consequences of his actions

Mitigating factors:

• Previously long unblemished career
• Made limited admissions and apologies albeit very late in the proceedings