Nicola Campbell

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

The Respondent, a solicitor and former partner at Windeatts, was convicted on 16 April 2012 of three counts of fraud by abuse of position for diverting over £16,500 into her husband's account by adding his account details to three cheques meant for clients' mortgage payments. She received a 12-month suspended prison sentence plus 200 hours unpaid work. The Tribunal found the conviction breached Principles 1, 2 and 6 and that dishonesty was proved. The Respondent did not attend but admitted the allegation and accepted she would likely be struck off. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered costs of £1,624.14, not to be enforced without leave given her financial circumstances (living on Jobseeker's Allowance).

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty alleged and proved
• Misconduct involved commission of a criminal offence
• Conduct was deliberate and repeated (altered cheques on three occasions)
• Breach of a position of trust
• Caused harm to clients and to her firm
• Knew conduct was in material breach of obligations to protect the public and reputation of profession

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary history
• Open and frank admissions
• Cooperated with the Applicant and pleaded guilty at trial
• Showed insight into her actions
• Difficult personal circumstances (caring for seriously ill husband, mother's illness/death, own ill health and depression)