U Bajela, C Collison, S Tackie-Oblie, F Anafi

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

Four solicitors of Collisons & Co were found to have acted dishonestly in connection with assistant solicitor Bajela's purchase of a property in which he misused mortgage advances from BOS and RBS and misapplied client funds. Bajela had been convicted of theft and obtaining money transfers by deception (three years three months' imprisonment) and using a forged insurance certificate. Principals Collison and Tackie-Oblie failed to supervise, remedy breaches, protect clients or report misconduct; assistant Anafi signed a misleading certificate of title and failed to disclose material information. The Tribunal, applying the Twinsectra test, found all four dishonest and struck each off the Roll. Costs of £22,000 were ordered against Bajela and £15,000 against each of the other three.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No improper communication with the court
• Honesty
• Act in the client's best interests
• Disclose material information to client
• No improper use of client money
• Supervise staff and delegated work
• Hold a current practising certificate
• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• Criminal convictions involving dishonesty and misuse of £290,013 of client account funds
• Concealment of true facts from mortgage lenders (BOS and RBS)
• Over £330,000 left owing to BOS without security
• Prolonging proceedings by denying allegations; Collison admitted only on day of hearing
• Complete failure of supervision by principals

Mitigating factors:

• Collison's long legal career, testimonials and prior good standing
• Collison and Anafi were in an invidious position initially not of their making
• Anafi acted on instructions of principals and genuinely believed he was resolving the situation
• Anafi later reported Bajela to Law Society and returned remaining funds to BOS
• Late admission of allegations by Collison
• Difficult personal and financial circumstances of respondents

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=67000"]