Jude Sebastian Fletcher

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

Mr Fletcher, owner, director and COFA of Fletcher Day Limited, misappropriated a minimum of £997,417.58 of client money, contributing to an overall client account shortage of £2,096,757.59. He transferred £2 million of client funds from the Firm's Lloyds client account into a Metro Bank account (-5577) held in the name of the LLP to which he alone had access, then made payments to himself (under his assumed name Jude Grammer) and to Client A for non-client purposes. He also provided the SRA with a falsified Metro bank statement and a false Metro letter, and gave the Firm's cashier forged statements showing a fictitious £2.1 million balance to conceal the shortage. The Tribunal found all allegations proved, including express findings of dishonesty, and struck him off the Roll. He did not attend and the hearing proceeded in his absence. Costs of £65,000 were ordered.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Proven dishonesty
• Conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated
• Motivated by personal financial gain
• Abuse of position as sole person with access to Metro account
• Falsified documents provided to staff and regulator
• Failure to engage with the regulator over a prolonged period