Paul Formby

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

Paul Formby, an experienced insolvency solicitor and salaried partner at SAS Daniels, admitted all allegations including dishonesty arising from his handling of the Crosbie matter for his client Ms Kent. He withdrew a s366 Insolvency Act application and committed his client to paying the second and third respondents' costs (£30,000) without her knowledge or consent, then concealed his conduct by redacting paragraphs from four witness statements and sending them to his client and to counsel as if unredacted. The Tribunal approved the agreed outcome on the papers, finding strike-off the only appropriate and proportionate sanction given the admitted dishonesty, with no exceptional circumstances. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £5,046.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Repeated dishonesty over a period of some 5-6 weeks involving redaction of four witness statements
• Committed his client to pay costs she was unaware of, had not agreed to and could not afford
• Misled his client over several months
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated
• Concealment of wrongdoing
• Experienced solicitor with direct responsibility
• Breach of trust placed in him by his client
• Motivated by desire to keep his position at the firm and retain his client
• Knew or ought to have known the conduct breached obligations to protect the public and reputation of the profession