Fleur Cranage

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

Fleur Cranage, an ILEX conveyancing fee earner (not a solicitor) at Thomson & Cook, set up her own search business (FQ Direct) which charged clients more than she paid the genuine third-party provider (searchmove.co.uk), generating an undisclosed secret profit of £3,683.28 between November 2007 and January 2008. She was dismissed for gross misconduct. Dishonesty was expressly not alleged or pursued; the Tribunal found she had shown a lack of integrity and made a serious misjudgement. It made a Section 43 order restricting her employment by solicitors and ordered her to pay agreed costs of £3,500 within 28 days. The Tribunal indicated she need not be excluded permanently and could later apply for revocation.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Honour professional undertakings
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct spanned a period from November 2007 to January 2008
• Failure to disclose to employers or clients, and initial prevarication when confronted
• Potential secret profit of around £14,000 over a year had activity continued

Mitigating factors:

• Relatively junior fee earner
• Admitted her actions and consented to the Order
• Offered to reimburse the profits made
• Positive references and had completed her LPC
• No dishonesty alleged or pursued