Craig Nicholas Hollingdrake & Elaine Saunders

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

Agreed outcome decided on the papers concerning the Firm JWK Legal Group's handling of the "Client A" scheme (sale of storage pods/parking spaces, ~£101.5m received and distributed). The Second Respondent (Hollingdrake, solicitor and COFA) admitted Accounts Rules breaches; the Tribunal assessed his conduct as 'moderately serious', noting breaches were inadvertent, caused no loss, and he was not the main protagonist. He was fined £7,500 (top of Level 2 band). The Fourth Respondent (Saunders, a non-solicitor) admitted Principle 6 and Accounts Rules breaches; the Tribunal made a Section 43 order restricting her employment in legal practice. Each was ordered to pay costs of £9,093.75 plus VAT. No dishonesty was found. (First and Third Respondents were dealt with separately.)

Duties found breached:

• Handle inadvertently received material
• No improper communication with the court
• No improper use of client money
• Proper basis for allegations