Stephen William Climo

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

The Respondent, an associate solicitor dealing with private client/probate matters, misappropriated £13,229.27 from five clients. He was convicted at Worcester Crown Court of one count of fraud by false representation, three counts of fraud by abuse of position and one count of theft, receiving a 20-month custodial sentence. The Tribunal, proceeding in his absence, found breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6 proved via the certificate of conviction. Although the offences by nature involved dishonesty, dishonesty was expressly not alleged in the proceedings. Given the extremely high culpability, breach of trust and misappropriation of client funds, the Respondent was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £4,254.60.

Duties found breached:

• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• Proper basis for allegations
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of time
• Concealment of wrongdoing until found out
• Breach of a position of trust
• Took advantage of vulnerable people
• Motivation of greed and personal gain
• Offences by their nature involved dishonesty
• No genuine insight demonstrated

Mitigating factors:

• Apology and admissions in letter of 17 June 2016
• Health issues raised
• Accepted he should no longer practise