Dalida Rajeshree Jhugroo

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

The Respondent, a solicitor and former partner at Hartington Law, acted for a client (Ms L) on a 2010 cash purchase of a London flat. Although she received all completion funds including £27,600 for SDLT and £550 for the Land Registry fee, she failed to submit the SDLT return, pay HMRC, pay the registration fee, or register the client's title. This was discovered in 2014 when the client tried to sell, causing her to lose a sale and onward purchase. The Tribunal found allegations 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 proved. It found the Respondent's conduct reckless to a level amounting to a lack of integrity but expressly accepted her failure was an oversight and not deliberate; no dishonesty was found. Given the seriousness, limited insight, and prior disciplinary record, the Tribunal ordered her struck off the Roll and to pay costs of £4,816.85. The hearing proceeded in her absence.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Respondent knew or should have realised she was in material breach of obligations to protect the public and reputation of the profession
• Previous disciplinary findings against her (three-year suspension in 2012 for serious SAR breaches)
• Limited insight into misconduct
• Failure to explain what happened to the £28,150 client money
• Failed to engage properly with proceedings

Mitigating factors:

• Misconduct was one of omission rather than commission, not deliberate
• Firm was in a chaotic state following departure of business partner and closure
• No intention to cause harm
• Made some admissions of fact and cooperated to a limited extent
• Events occurred around the same time as previous misconduct, so no opportunity to learn from it