Samuel Maurice Charkham

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

Samuel Maurice Charkham, a conveyancing partner at Simkins LLP, faced allegations of racially abusive conduct and sexual touching of two female colleagues. The Tribunal found proved: telling a racist 'joke' at a firm dinner (breaching Principles 2, 6 and 9), a Ku Klux Klan envelope incident directed at Person A (Principles 2, 6, 9), both being racially motivated; touching Person A's bottom on more than one occasion (Principles 2 and 6), found to be sexually motivated; and flicking Person B's backside with his hand (Principles 2 and 6). The Tribunal made no finding of dishonesty, though it found lack of integrity and racial/sexual motivation. It found lack of insight and ingrained attitudes, but no significant risk of repetition. It imposed a Level 4 fine of £30,000, recommended equality/diversity training, and ordered costs of £21,000 (reduced from £29,950 sought).

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Lack of insight; continued to characterise conduct as a 'playful/old-fashioned sense of humour'
• Ingrained attitudinal shortcomings towards women and those of another racial background
• Abuse of power imbalance between a senior partner and junior/administrative staff
• Repeated conduct over a period (2014-2017) and a further incident in 2018
• Interference with the investigation - called Person B into a meeting and emailed her seeking withdrawal of her complaint; led the witness statements of Ms Johnson and Ms Hill
• KKK incident was premeditated and specifically targeted at Person A
• Profound harm caused to Person A, evident during her evidence

Mitigating factors:

• First allegations of misconduct in an otherwise 43-year unblemished career
• Cooperation with the Applicant and Tribunal throughout
• Apologised for the bad taste of the 'jokes'
• Tribunal did not consider he posed a significant risk of repetition or a risk to the public
• Christmas 'joke' not specifically directed at Person A and not premeditated