R G Simkin & Z M Sharif

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

Before the SDT, solicitor Richard Simkin and firm administrator Zakia Sharif (married to each other, undisclosed to their firm Fulbright & Jaworski) faced allegations of expenses fraud, undisclosed private work, forgery and misappropriation. The Tribunal refused Sharif's adjournment application (despite pending January 2012 criminal proceedings) but held the hearing in private and embargoed publication until the criminal trial concluded. The Tribunal found Simkin dishonest in making false expense claims and receiving undisclosed fees while practising without PII, and struck him off the Roll (applying Sharma, finding no exceptional circumstances). Sharif was found dishonest on multiple counts (false Tokyo expense claim of £10,710, creating false recruitment invoices, forging Stephen Vogel's signature to obtain £59,425, misappropriating firm money) and, being a non-solicitor, was made subject to a Section 43 Order. Some allegations (4, 8, 9, 14) were not proved to the criminal standard. Simkin ordered to pay costs of £22,000 and Sharif £12,000, with no order on enforceability given their restraint/freezing orders.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Disclose material information to client
• No improper use of client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Abuse of position of trust (First Respondent was Risk and Compliance Partner and MLRO; Second Respondent was Director of Administration)
• Undisclosed marital/personal relationship allowing Second Respondent to authorise First Respondent's expenses, breaching firm's anti-nepotism policy
• Deliberate and planned conduct including forgery and creation of false invoices
• Exposing clients to risk by undertaking private work without professional indemnity insurance
• Conduct brought the profession into serious disrepute

Mitigating factors:

• First Respondent's medical condition (stress, anxiety and depression per Dr Wilkins' report) said to have influenced decision-making
• No clients affected by the false claims
• First Respondent expressed remorse and did not oppose being struck off

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=34000"]