David Davies

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

David Davies, an experienced solicitor and head of the criminal department at HP Law, was found to have acted dishonestly in relation to a residential conveyancing transaction. After a £20,000 banker's draft from a third party (Ms RH) was rejected by the conveyancing department as non-client money, he arranged for it (together with a £10,000 loan from his daughter) to be paid into client account allocated to his son-in-law's unrelated purchase ledger, then transferred £30,000 to his daughter, onward to the purchaser Mr DW, and back to the firm as completion monies - disguising the source and depriving the mortgage lender of relevant information. The Tribunal applied the Twinsectra test and found dishonesty. All allegations were admitted and substantiated. The Respondent was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £25,000.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate and calculated steps to disguise the source of funds after being explicitly warned they could not be paid into client account
• Used his son-in-law's client account to disguise the funds
• Deceived the firm's cashiers
• Undermined the protection of the mortgage lender by not disclosing true source of funds
• Finding of dishonesty against an experienced solicitor

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated incident in an otherwise long and productive career
• No personal gain from the transaction
• No criminal charges brought (police declined to prosecute)
• Positive references and testimonials as to integrity
• Events occurred over six years earlier