Stephen John Ellis

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

Stephen John Ellis, a solicitor admitted in 1999, was convicted at Carlisle Crown Court in October 2015 of six counts of fraud by abuse of position, three counts of dishonestly making false representations, one count of false accounting and one count of making false representation to creditors, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment plus a 10-year company director disqualification. He misused client funds, created fictitious invoices, pursued bogus claims through the courts and provided false information to obtain a CVA. He admitted the SRA allegation of breaching Principles 1, 2 and 6. The Tribunal found the allegation proved on his admissions and the Certificate of Conviction, and ordered that he be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £2,000.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Multiple criminal convictions for fraudulent, dishonest conduct
• Conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of time
• Created fictitious invoices and issued court proceedings against clients to recover fictitious sums
• Benefited financially, defrauding clients of large sums used for business and personal purposes
• Late admissions in criminal proceedings, having sought to blame the accounting system
• Abuse of process of the court and provision of false information in support of a CVA
• Gross breach of position of trust

Mitigating factors:

• Co-operation with the disciplinary process
• Previously long unblemished career
• Remorse and contrition expressed through legal representative
• Current ill health
• Devastating personal consequences of convictions