Manjit Singh s/o Kirpal Singh

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

The Court of Three Judges found due cause for disciplinary action against two partners of Manjit Govind & Partners who advised their client, Ms Rankine, to pay $1.8m to their wives ostensibly for safekeeping and future legal fees, then refused to return it, claiming it was a gift. The 1st Respondent also misused a $20,000 cashier's order for an unrelated matter. The court rejected allegations of tribunal bias and lack of due process, upheld the tribunal's factual findings, and expressly found both Respondents acted dishonestly. Both were struck off the roll and ordered to bear costs.

Duties found breached:

• Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Opportunistic exploitation of client's trust and her fear of Mr Amin
• Elaborate scheme using the client as a conduit to disguise the payment away from the firm's accounts
• Instructing client to lie to her banker that the payment was for 'investment purposes'
• Lack of remorse; repeated attempts to delay and obstruct the tribunal proceedings with trivial excuses
• Refusal to account for or return the monies when demanded