Lynne Muscroft

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

The Respondent, who led her firm's personal injury department, accepted a £5,000 settlement offer without client JW's instructions and misled JW into believing her matter had settled for £60,500. She made seven improper payments into JW's client ledger from unrelated client matters to fund a purported settlement, misusing client funds. She admitted dishonesty under the Twinsectra test. The matter was resolved on the papers via an agreed outcome. The Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances and ordered she be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £17,438, not to be enforced without leave of the Tribunal.

Duties found breached:

• Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct involved dishonesty
• Breach of SAR 2011 was deliberate and repeated
• Misconduct continued over a period of time
• Misconduct involved concealment of wrongdoing
• Respondent knew or ought to have known conduct was in material breach of obligations to protect the public and reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Open and frank admissions made at an early stage and cooperation with the SRA
• Evidence of insight in light of admissions made
• No prior regulatory disciplinary history
• Asserted she did not gain personally and misuse was a misguided attempt to satisfy clients and the firm