John Desmond Patefield

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

The respondent, admitted in 1992 but not in practice, was convicted on his own confession at Bradford Crown Court of attempting to obtain services by deception (relating to attempting to obtain the lease of a car), with three similar matters taken into account, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The Tribunal found the allegation of conduct unbefitting a solicitor substantiated, expressly finding he had been convicted of an offence of dishonesty. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £1,397.67.

Duties found breached:

• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Conviction of an offence of dishonesty
• Custodial sentence imposed (six months' imprisonment)
• Three further like offences taken into consideration
• Commission of an offence of dishonesty extremely damaging to the reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Previous good character
• Offences not committed in the course of practice as a solicitor
• Did not contest the allegations