Jonathan James Turner

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

Jonathan Turner, an experienced criminal barrister, admitted nine charges of professional misconduct across two cases (Maqsood and Collins). In Maqsood he improperly uploaded a Notice of Additional Evidence (NAE6) to the Crown Court Digital Case System, being reckless as to whether the court and LAA would be misled into treating it as served prosecution evidence, and then pursued fee claims based on it. In Collins he drafted and uploaded an indictment himself (a reserved legal activity he was not entitled to perform) and was reckless as to whether the court would be misled that it had been validly preferred by the prosecution, later sending a misleading note to the court. The BSB accepted and the tribunal followed the basis that his conduct was reckless rather than dishonest; no express finding of dishonesty was made. The tribunal found the case in the middle range of seriousness and imposed a 6-month suspension on each charge concurrent, plus £4,680 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• No improper communication with the court
• No taking unfair advantage
• No conflict between current clients
• Handle inadvertently received material

Aggravating factors:

• Actual or potential financial gain (approx £5,000 in Maqsood if NAE6 accepted)
• Persistence in trying to obtain payment based on NAE6
• Misconduct occurred in two separate cases less than two years apart - not an isolated incident
• Collins Charge 9 treated as an aggravating feature
• CPS made to account in open court for conduct Mr Turner did not own up to
• Approximately 7 separate occasions of recklessness

Mitigating factors:

• Admission of liability/guilty plea (on agreed basis of recklessness not dishonesty)
• 23 years of dedication to the profession and excellent reputation
• High regard among professional colleagues
• Lapse of time since the matters
• Conduct was reckless not deliberately dishonest
• Slight likelihood of repetition

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=4680"]