Stewart Christian Costello

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

The Respondent, admitted 2006, was convicted at Taunton Crown Court on 9 April 2014 of two counts of fraud by abuse of position and sentenced to 14 months imprisonment. As an assistant solicitor he had dishonestly transferred £14,000 of client compensation money into his personal account to fund a gambling addiction. The Tribunal, proceeding in his absence, relied on the certificate of conviction and found all three Principle breaches (1, 2, 6) proved, with dishonesty being the state of mind for the offence. Finding no exceptional circumstances under Sharma and no genuine insight, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £2,500.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Conviction for dishonesty offence (two counts of fraud by abuse of position) in the course of practice
• Very high breach of trust between solicitor and client
• Deliberately took £14,000 of client money for personal benefit to pay gambling debts
• Lack of genuine insight into damage caused
• Failure to engage with proceedings

Mitigating factors:

• Previous good character
• Told the truth to police and pleaded guilty at earliest opportunity
• Efforts to address gambling addiction/compulsive disorder through medical treatment
• Money ultimately repaid to clients by the firm
• Remorse noted in sentencing remarks