David Davies

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

David Davies, head of the firm's criminal department, was found to have acted dishonestly in relation to a residential conveyancing transaction. After a £20,000 banker's draft from a third party (Ms RH) was rejected by the conveyancing department as non-client money, he arranged for it to be paid into client account and allocated to his son-in-law's unrelated 'Mark's Stores' purchase ledger, then transferred £30,000 (including £10,000 from his daughter) out to his daughter's account, which routed the funds via the purchaser Mr DW back to the firm to complete the purchase, concealing the true source of funds from the mortgage lender. The Tribunal applied the Twinsectra test and found dishonesty, rejecting the Respondent's claim that the transactions were authorised by partner Mr Plummer. All allegations were admitted and substantiated. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £25,000.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty found - deliberate and calculated steps to disguise source of funds
• Deceived the firm's cashiers after being expressly warned the draft could not be paid into client account
• Used son-in-law's client account to disguise source of rejected banker's draft
• Undermined protection of the mortgage lender by concealing true source of funds
• Experienced solicitor who had run his own practice

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated incident in an otherwise long and productive career
• No personal benefit gained from the transaction
• No criminal charges brought (police decided not to prosecute)
• Positive references and testimonials as to integrity
• Admitted the factual allegations (though denied dishonesty)