Colin Ross Downie

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

Colin Ross Downie, a director of Adjust Law Group Limited, admitted five allegations relating to PPI litigation funding conduct between December 2008 and January 2015. He sought investor funding while knowing prior investors had not been repaid and the Firm was insolvent, misused investor funds (paying himself and family approximately £780,000 and personally receiving £817,242.73, plus spending on a Mercedes and football tickets), knowingly misled parties including auditors, IFAs and administrators about grossly inflated work-in-progress values (which proved to be nil), and failed to correct inaccuracies in a promotional brochure. Investors lost roughly £4,000,000, with less than £150,000 repaid. He expressly admitted dishonesty under the Ivey test. The Tribunal, on an agreed outcome, found this a very serious case of dishonesty with no exceptional circumstances and ordered him struck off, plus costs of £20,833.33 plus VAT.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Misconduct persisted and was repeated over a significant period (approx five years)
• Planned pattern of behaviour
• Knew or ought to have known conduct breached obligations to protect public and reputation of profession
• Personal financial gain (received £817,242.73 personally)

Mitigating factors:

• Genuine subjective belief the Firm would trade through its difficulties and repay investors
• Intention to keep staff employed and pay creditors
• Made admissions in interview in September 2016
• Cooperation via agreed outcome/full admissions
• Degree of impecuniosity taken into account on costs