Andrew Adeniyi Abereoji

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

The Respondent, an assistant solicitor, was convicted on 4 January 2013 of two counts of fraud by abuse of position and sentenced to 28 months' imprisonment (concurrent). He had defrauded his employer and members of the public of £27,570 over nearly five years. The Tribunal proceeded in his absence (he was in prison and had not sought a production order). The single allegation of breaching Principle 6 was found proved to the criminal standard. Applying SRA v Sharma and finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £1,560, not to be enforced without leave given his lack of means.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Degree of planning - creation of own receipts and VAT invoices to cover criminal activity
• Offending carried out over nearly a five-year period
• Abuse of position of trust as a solicitor
• Fraud of £27,570 defrauding employer and members of the public
• Damage to reputation of employer and the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Previously of good character with no prior disciplinary matters