Richard Sutton Housley

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

The Respondent, a solicitor, was convicted at the High Court of Justiciary on three charges: income tax fraud, involvement in an arrangement facilitating criminal property under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and failure to disclose suspected money laundering. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment plus two concurrent six-month sentences. As Section 53(1)(b) applied (imprisonment of 12 months or more), the Tribunal struck his name from the Roll of Solicitors and found him liable in expenses. Dishonesty was expressly found in relation to the convictions.

Duties found breached:

• Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
• Self-report to the regulator
• AML and crime-prevention compliance

Aggravating factors:

• Sentenced to four years imprisonment
• Convictions involving dishonesty
• Large sums involved (£1.8 million passing through accounts)
• Serious departure from standard expected of a solicitor as gatekeeper against money laundering

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent cooperated and agreed the terms of the Joint Minute
• Respondent admitted the terms of the Complaint