Timothy James Miles

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

Timothy James Miles, a solicitor, was convicted at Isleworth Crown Court on 26 May 2006 of 13 counts of theft and one count of making a false instrument, and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. He had forged a will for an elderly client's £700,000 estate and stolen from ten client estates over four years, totalling more than £1.2million. The Tribunal found the allegation substantiated on his admission, found clear dishonesty, and struck him off the Roll and ordered him to pay costs of £9,548.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Extended period of offending over four years
• Defrauded ten clients of over £1.2million
• Drew others (friends) into his dishonesty
• Theft from modest estate of a young man who committed suicide, depriving his mother of monies
• Misled his partners by claiming it was a one-off incident
• Gross breach of clients' and employer's trust; considerable deception including bogus documents

Mitigating factors:

• Personal problems at the relevant time including breakdown of his marriage
• Made good approximately 85% of the stolen monies
• Guilty plea