Muhammad Iqbal

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

Muhammad Iqbal, a sole practitioner, was found to have improperly held out two solicitors (Q Hussain and S Iqbal) as partners in his firm when they were not, providing misleading information to mortgage lenders and the Law Society, and to have breached the Solicitors Accounts Rules including a client account shortage of £9,019.68. Allegation (e), forwarding a mortgage application purportedly signed by Q Hussain, was put as dishonesty, but the Tribunal did not find dishonesty proven to the required high standard as there was no evidence the Respondent knew the signature was not genuine. Despite mitigation regarding depression and family circumstances, the Tribunal found he had not acted with required probity and integrity and struck him off the Roll, ordering costs of £9,000 plus VAT plus SRA investigation costs. His appeal on sanction was dismissed with no order for costs.

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Sought to mislead mortgage lenders as to the firm's structure for commercial advantage, as lenders would not instruct sole practitioners
• Wide range of unprofessional behaviour affecting third parties including the Law Society and lenders
• Ms Iqbal had to commence legal proceedings resulting in a compromise agreement acknowledging false representation

Mitigating factors:

• Personal difficulties including family illness and stress
• Suffered from likely longstanding depression, supported by GP letter
• Accepted the FIO's findings and rectified the client account shortfall
• Positive character references
• Breaches of Accounts Rules were not deliberate and were minor