Geoffrey Rushton

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

Geoffrey Rushton, sole partner/owner/COLP/COFA at Rushton Legal Services Ltd, acted for Client A, a serving prisoner, in handling his deceased mother's estate monies. Rushton had £37,502.73 paid into the Firm's overdrawn Business Current Account rather than the client account, thereby clearing an overdraft and paying office overheads. He made improper withdrawals totalling £7,000 for his own benefit, sent Client A a breakdown of charges including a fictitious £1,875.13 'bank interest' charge, failed to properly attest a power of attorney (rendering it invalid), and sent two misleading letters falsely claiming his accounts were frozen and the Firm had been intervened into. He also failed to cooperate with three SRA production notices. The Tribunal found all allegations proved and made express findings of dishonesty on Allegations 1.1-1.5. The Respondent did not attend; the hearing proceeded in absence. He was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £21,827.50 (reduced from £23,707.50).

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Act in the client's best interests
• Segregate client money
• No improper use of client money
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty as a serious aggravating feature
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over many months
• Client A was a vulnerable person as a serving prisoner
• Respondent concealed matters by lying to client and blamed a former employee
• Respondent knew he was in material breach of professional obligations
• Motivated by personal financial gain
• Breach of a position of trust

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings (noted but no mitigating factors identified by Tribunal)