Martyn Robert Brown

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

Martyn Robert Brown, a sole practitioner at Integrum Law, retained client monies intended to pay professional disbursements (counsel fees, medical experts, ATE insurance premiums) in his office account to aid his firm's cash flow over the period 2012-2018, resulting in a client account shortage exceeding £69,000. Despite receiving Qualified Accountants' Reports from 2013-2017 flagging the breaches, he failed to remedy them. He operated a deliberate system of only paying disbursements when chased. He admitted all allegations including dishonesty. The Tribunal found both allegations proved, including an express finding of dishonesty under the Ivey test, with no exceptional circumstances. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £9,068 (reduced from £10,008 claimed).

Duties found breached:

• Disclose adverse law to the court
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest conduct
• Deliberate, calculated and repeated conduct over a four-year period
• Was the COLP and COFA of the Firm and ought to have known conduct breached obligations
• Fully aware of breaches through Qualified Accountants' Reports 2013-2017
• Previous appearance before the Tribunal in 2009 for Accounts Rules breaches
• Claims made against the Compensation Fund indicating impact on those affected

Mitigating factors:

• Some degree of insight, admitted the breaches
• Cooperated with the regulator and the proceedings
• Made admissions including admission of dishonesty
• Litigation with former partners causing cash flow difficulties (not accepted as exceptional)
• No shortfall in funds held directly for clients; only professional disbursements affected