Tony Kirton & Simon Andrew Clive Newbold & Zakia Khalid & Roy George & Adrian Michael Organ & Daniel Clarke

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

Five respondents from Geoffrey Parker Bourne Limited and its successor GPB Solicitors LLP admitted Solicitors Accounts Rules breaches arising from a failure to properly control systems, which allowed improper transfers from client to office account and led to a £1.68m client account shortfall. The misappropriation was actually committed and concealed by a non-solicitor cashier (Mr Clarke), and no dishonesty or lack of integrity was alleged against any of the five respondents. The Tribunal approved an Agreed Outcome imposing fines (totalling £32,001 after means-based reductions), a section 43 order against Mr Kirton (a non-solicitor), and joint and several costs of £53,000.

Duties found breached:

• Disclose adverse law to the court
• No unlawful discrimination or harassment
• No conflict between current clients
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Previous disciplinary findings against the Second and Fifth Respondents (Case No. 11080-2012), which increased their fines
• Substantial client account shortfall of £1,681,044.96

Mitigating factors:

• No dishonesty or lack of integrity alleged or found against any of the first to fifth respondents
• The misappropriation was carried out and concealed by Mr Clarke (Sixth Respondent), who deleted ledgers so as to evade detection by qualified accountants and two audits
• Respondents self-reported immediately upon discovery and cooperated fully with the SRA
• The firm had substantial management structures, Lexcel accreditation and the Riliance compliance system, and employed a qualified accountant as Head of Finance
• Members took prompt remedial steps including reporting, PI insurance claim, and instructing auditors
• Client account shortfall was made good via professional indemnity insurance

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_fine_amount=32001"]