David Wedge

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

An unregistered barrister who had practised as a solicitor faced 8 charges of professional misconduct before a BSB Disciplinary Tribunal, largely arising from findings of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (which struck him off on 3 May 2019). The charges included accepting a £110,000 personal loan from a client without advising independent legal advice, dishonestly misleading two clients (KK and RL), providing poor and incompetent service, and failing to report the SRA's action to the BSB. The respondent did not attend and did not defend. All charges were found proved to the criminal standard. Finding widespread and repeated dishonesty incompatible with being a barrister, and no mitigation, the Tribunal ordered disbarment (effective in 28 days), imposed an immediate interim suspension, and ordered £1,200 costs payable to the BSB.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Competence
• Self-report to the regulator

Aggravating factors:

• Two clients were deceived
• One client had no access to his daughter for some time due to the respondent's dishonest conduct
• Widespread and repeated dishonesty, including lying to clients and the regulator
• No empathy with clients and failure to acknowledge the significant impact upon them
• No remorse shown