Dilaor Miah

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

Dilaor Miah, a senior criminal fee earner at Thompsons Solicitors, created false documents (attendance notes, letters and invoices) on 6 client files to disguise that he had double-booked and cancelled agents/counsel at short notice. He substituted fictitious invoices (from agent AH and entity LS) and submitted misleading claims to the National Taxing Team, then caused payments from central funds to be made to recipients other than those authorised, resulting in the firm repaying over £7,000. The Tribunal found all three allegations proved, including dishonesty (applying the Ivey test) and lack of integrity (breach of Principles 2 and 6). It rejected the argument that his depression, alcohol use and self-medication prevented him from knowing what he was doing, finding the fabrications sophisticated and deliberate. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off and ordered him to pay costs of £24,825.48; the Applicant was ordered to pay the Respondent £2,441.80 in wasted costs for the aborted 5 March 2018 hearing.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Proven dishonesty
• Repeated and deliberate conduct over a period of months across 6 files
• Concealment of his errors (double bookings) from his employer
• Misconduct he knew or ought to have known breached obligations to protect the public and reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Suffering from depression/mental illness at the material time, triggered by a traumatic event for which he was blameless, combined with alcohol and unprescribed self-medication
• Previously unblemished career and good character with supportive testimonials
• Early admission of the facts once discovered and cooperation throughout
• No financial benefit to himself and offer to reimburse the ~£7,000 loss