Dominic Leon Macknight

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

Mr Macknight, sole director, shareholder, COLP and COFA of Lawson Taylor Solicitors, admitted all allegations including dishonesty. Between November 2021 and September 2022 he made improper transfers totalling £16,308 from client account to office account (including £4,600 to keep the office overdraft under £30,000), creating a cash shortage he failed to replace. He provided inaccurate and misleading explanations to the SRA's FIO, failed to cooperate with the SRA and Intervention Agents, and failed to complete client account reconciliations from August 2021 to the December 2022 intervention. The Tribunal found him highly culpable and found his admitted dishonesty, with no exceptional circumstances. He was struck off the Roll. No order for costs was made (SRA claimed £9,330.10) given his inability to pay.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• Diligence and timeliness
• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was deliberate, planned and dishonest
• Repeated over a considerable period of time
• Sole and direct control of the withdrawals
• Deliberately misled the regulator and failed to cooperate
• Caused serious harm to clients and reputation of the profession
• Failed to replace the £16,308 cash shortage

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary matters
• Some genuine insight through admissions (though made at a very late stage)