Aygun Sahin

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

Aygun Sahin, a trainee solicitor at Duncan Lewis, misappropriated £500 paid in cash by a client on account of costs, fabricated Legal Help forms and letters to make a privately funded matter appear publicly funded (obtaining £93 from the LSC), and misled the client about the progress of his case including inventing a fictional court date. The Tribunal, proceeding in her absence, found all three allegations proved and found dishonesty under the Twinsectra test in respect of all three. Finding no exceptional circumstances, she was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay agreed costs of £11,252.96.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Only repaid the money when her actions came to light
• Conduct extended over a period of time
• Deliberate steps to conceal that money had been paid to her

Mitigating factors:

• Trainee solicitor at the time
• Under personal financial pressure