Roderick G Mickel

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

Sole practitioner found guilty of professional misconduct following a financial compliance inspection that revealed four separate instances of misuse of client funds over nearly two years. He took a £65,000 "loan" from a long-standing client (Mrs A) without authority or independent advice, falsely telling her the loan was to another client when in fact it was to himself. He also took duplicate/improper fees from the executries of Mr F and Mr G and misused funds from Miss D's executry, all for his own use. Although all funds were ultimately repaid and no client sustained loss and there was no claim on the Guarantee Fund, the Tribunal found the conduct deliberate and dishonest, at the highest end of the scale. The Respondent was struck off the Roll of Solicitors and found liable for expenses.

Duties found breached:

• Act only on proper, lawful instructions
• Segregate client money
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Four separate instances of misuse of client funds over nearly two years
• Conduct was wilful and deliberate, not spontaneous
• Respondent corrected/falsified ledger entries to cover the nature of payments
• Deliberately selected a long-standing client's ledger and targeted a known bond
• Two previous findings of misconduct before the Tribunal (third appearance)
• Admissions to the Law Society only made after intimation of a Guarantee Fund Committee interview
• Agreed interest to Mrs A not paid until after his letter to the Law Society