Sangar Kumar and Youshamatee Devi Seekunto

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

Two non-solicitor employees of Gratian & Co faced Section 43 applications after the death of partner Mr Nirmalanandan revealed a client account shortage of over £371,000 arising from his forgery and improper payments. Mrs Seekunto (Mrs Devi), the bookkeeper, admitted awareness of the teeming-and-lading, the forged partner signatures, and an improper commission, but failed to report these to Mr Ratnam. The Tribunal made a Section 43 order controlling her future employment in the profession and ordered her to pay costs of £2,300. Against Mr Kumar (Practice Manager), the Tribunal accepted he only connected an earlier suspicious cheque incident to forgery after Mr Nirmalanandan's death, and found the allegation not substantiated, ordering the Law Society to pay his costs. No express finding of dishonesty was made against either respondent.

Duties found breached:

• Handle inadvertently received material
• No improper use of client money
• Report serious misconduct of others