Sandra Campbell

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

Sandra Campbell, a sole practitioner solicitor, was found to have misappropriated £164,264 from Client A (property sale proceeds) and £17,000 from Client B (personal injury award) from the firm's client account. She made numerous misleading statements over several months to her clients, the SRA and the Court, falsely representing that funds remained available and that payment was imminent, when the client account balance had fallen to as little as £5.16. The Tribunal found all allegations proved, including dishonesty under the Ivey test on every count. Proceeding in the Respondent's absence, the Tribunal found a high degree of culpability and substantial harm, with multiple dishonesty findings as aggravation. Finding no exceptional circumstances under Sharma, the Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered costs of £25,114.40.

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Honesty
• Integrity
• No improper use of client money
• No taking unfair advantage
• Not mislead the court
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Multiple findings of dishonest conduct
• Conduct repeated and extended over time (September to December 2020)
• Planned and sustained conduct involving multiple emails to two clients, the regulator and the Court
• Experienced solicitor (admitted 1998, sole practice since 2012, COLP and COFA)
• Clients cynically misled causing significant distress and financial loss exceeding £180,000
• Knew conduct was in material breach of obligations

Mitigating factors:

• No prior disciplinary findings since admission in 1998
• Partial payment by instalments made to Client A (very limited mitigation)
• Unevidenced references to personal and health pressures