Levent Halil Chetinkaya & Tracey Curaba

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

The SDT found the First Respondent, solicitor Levent Chetinkaya, had instructed a legal secretary to create and backdate a 6 April 2017 letter to create a misleading version of events on a conveyancing file (allegation 1.1) and had failed to inform his client her documents were lost while deliberately misleading her (allegation 1.3), both with dishonesty under the Ivey test, breaching Principles 2, 4, 5 and 6. Allegations 1.2 and 1.4 (and associated dishonesty) were found not proved. The Second Respondent, an unadmitted legal secretary, was found to have created and backdated the letter on instruction, dishonestly (allegation 2.1), but allegation 2.2 was not proved. Finding no exceptional circumstances (two incidences of dishonesty, self-serving conduct), the Tribunal struck the First Respondent off the Roll. The Second Respondent received a section 43 order. Total costs were assessed at £11,250, apportioned 80/20: £9,000 ordered against the First Respondent and £1,000 against the Second Respondent (reduced from £2,250 on affordability). The Tribunal criticised the SRA's late disclosure and inaccuracies in the Rule 5 Statement, reducing costs accordingly.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Act in the client's best interests
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty alleged and proved
• Misconduct deliberate and calculated
• Two separate incidences of dishonesty
• Conduct continued over a period (allegation 1.3 spanned over a month)
• Concealment was the whole intention
• Self-serving motivation (to insulate himself against complaint)
• Involved a subordinate (the Second Respondent) in his misconduct
• Lack of insight; attempted to rewrite history in evidence

Mitigating factors:

• No previous appearance before the Tribunal
• Harm to client somewhat limited
• Difficult family circumstances at the time
• Fasting for Ramadan affecting judgment
• Pressure of heavy workload
• Positive character testimonials