Kevin Manning

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

Kevin Manning, an unregistered barrister called by Middle Temple, practised as a solicitor in Jersey and, as curator, took money (~£65,000) from eight curatorship accounts and a trust to cover a deficit in his firm's client account. He was convicted in the Royal Court (Jersey) in December 2018 of 20 counts of fraudulent conversion, one count of fraudulent conversion by a trustee, and a money laundering records offence, and sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment. He also failed to report to the BSB the Jersey disciplinary proceedings, his suspension, the charges, his convictions, and his removal from the Roll of Solicitors. The Tribunal, in his absence, found all four charges proved. The Tribunal made an express finding of dishonesty of a very serious nature and disbarred him on charges 1, 2 and 4, with no separate penalty on charge 3. No costs were ordered given his limited means.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Self-report to the regulator
• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• Very serious nature of the dishonesty
• Breach of trust involving substantial sum taken from client/curatorship accounts
• Convicted and sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment

Mitigating factors:

• No previous findings against him
• Guilty pleas in the Jersey criminal proceedings
• Never denied the allegations