Drakens Mukoro

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

The First Respondent, a solicitor supervising the mental health department at Gans & Co Solicitors LLP, knowingly caused at least £11,160 in claims to be made to the Legal Aid Agency for First Tier Mental Health Tribunal hearings that had never taken place, and altered/added documents (fabricated attendance notes, amended dates with whitening fluid, torn-off letter headers) to substantiate those claims. The Tribunal rejected his defence of a conspiracy by the firm's principal (EOG) and found expressly that his conduct was dishonest under the Ivey test, breaching Principles 2 and 6. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay £38,142.40 costs. The Second Respondent firm was found to have had inadequate supervision systems (breaching Principles 6 and 8 and Outcomes 7.2 and 7.8), was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs. Total costs ordered were £48,142.40 (split approx. 80/20).

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest conduct that was deliberate, calculated and repeated over the period of employment
• Attempted to cover tracks by amending and defacing documents (whitening fluid, tearing off letter headers)
• Planned conduct requiring foresight
• Caused colossal harm to reputation of profession and financial harm to former employer

Mitigating factors:

• First Respondent had a previously unblemished career (found insufficient to ameliorate seriousness)
• Second Respondent took remedial steps to strengthen systems, showed remorse, and had been hoodwinked by a plausible and dishonest employee