George Edward Nosworthy

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

George Edward Nosworthy, a solicitor and principal at Cree Godfrey & Wood, admitted dishonestly overcharging four estates/trusts he administered between 1995 and 2020, resulting in a total overcharge of approximately £474,108.88. He was the fee earner (and in some cases executor/trustee) on all four matters and improperly transferred client money to the office account to fund the firm's cash flow. He admitted all allegations including dishonesty under the Ivey test. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers via an agreed outcome, found no exceptional circumstances and ordered that he be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £36,157.00.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest conduct over a significant period of time
• Total overcharge of approximately £474,108.88
• Conduct abused position of trust as executor/trustee and custodian of client money
• Significant impact on beneficiaries who did not receive full entitlement
• Respondent benefited and had not repaid the money
• Repeated pattern of charging across four client matters

Mitigating factors:

• Age 79 and personal/family stress; sold family home
• Full co-operation with SRA and intervention
• Early admissions of allegations and dishonesty
• Genuine remorse
• Entered into an IVA (circa £760,000) to repay creditors
• Medical/psychiatric issues caused by stress of practice
• Income tax, VAT and staff always fully paid