Andre Michael Wormstone

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

The Respondent, a solicitor admitted in 1993, was convicted on indictment at Leicester Crown Court on 7 February 2013 of being concerned in a money laundering arrangement contrary to s328(1) Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. He was sentenced on the basis that he suspected (rather than knew) that £2,036,000 diverted from the University of Sussex was criminal property, and used his professional standing to help attempt to unfreeze the funds. He did not attend the hearing but accepted the conviction while protesting his innocence and asking to be removed from the Roll. The Tribunal could not go behind the conviction and found the allegation proved. It made no express finding of dishonesty (conviction based on suspicion/blind eye). The only proportionate sanction was to strike him off, and he was ordered to pay costs of £7,000.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• AML and crime-prevention compliance

Aggravating factors:

• Serious offence involving money laundering of £2,036,000
• Offence occurred in course of practice as a solicitor
• His professional status was used to lend respectability to attempts to free frozen criminal funds
• Deliberately turned a blind eye to suspicions rather than investigating

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings
• No financial gain from his actions
• Psychiatric report elicited a degree of sympathy