Andrew George Davies
Allegation / charges
Breaches, Client Money, Solicitors' Accounts Rules
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Andrew George Davies, a solicitor and member at Pitmans LLP, admitted making at least 227 improper withdrawals from client account between October 2009 and April 2017, resulting in a minimum cash shortage of £1,504,056.12, which he misappropriated for his own purposes. He also admitted using the client bank account as a banking facility (2013-2016). The matter proceeded by way of Agreed Outcome on the papers. The Tribunal found dishonesty was admitted/established and that there were no exceptional circumstances. He was serving a prison sentence at the time of the hearing for related matters. The Tribunal ordered he be struck off the Roll and pay £17,000 in costs. Publication of the judgment was deferred pending the conclusion of a co-defendant's criminal trial.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Dishonesty
- Large sums of money involved (minimum shortage of £1,504,056.12)
- Misappropriation over a prolonged period (2009-2017)
- At least 227 improper withdrawals
- Related criminal conviction
Mitigating factors:
- Admitted all allegations including dishonesty
Duties engaged
- Honesty
- No bribery or improper gifts
- Personal probity and fitness to practise
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No unlawful discrimination or harassment
- Act in the client's best interests
- Advise objectively, not a mere conduit
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- No conflict between current clients