Victoria Barbara Wadsworth

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

The Respondent, a salaried partner running the mental health department at Roebucks Solicitors, invented a fictitious company (Healthy Minds) to bill for non-existent medical reports, causing false claims to be submitted to the Legal Services Commission. She was convicted of fraud at Manchester Crown Court on 25 May 2016 and sentenced to three years' imprisonment (reduced to two on appeal). The SRA's original Rule 5(2) dishonesty allegations were left to lie on file, and the Tribunal proceeded on the Rule 7(1) conviction allegation, which it found proved beyond reasonable doubt. Treating fraud as an offence involving dishonesty and finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck her name off the Roll and ordered costs of £21,864.10.

Duties found breached:

• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• Proper basis for allegations
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate, calculated and repeated misconduct over a period of time (2007-2012)
• Planned conduct - set up fictitious company (Healthy Minds) to receive payments
• Breach of a position of trust with direct control and responsibility
• Concealed wrongdoing and only pleaded guilty at a late stage
• Ought reasonably to have known conduct breached obligations to protect the public and profession's reputation

Mitigating factors:

• Showed some insight, albeit at a late stage, by entering a guilty plea
• Caring responsibilities for a severely disabled adult son
• Difficult personal and financial circumstances