Zahid Khan

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

Zahid Khan, sole owner and compliance officer of Janson Solicitors, misused and failed to protect client money, causing a client account shortfall of at least £594,717 (leading to Compensation Fund payments of over £590,000). He used one client's money for other clients' matters and transferred client funds into a personal account for onward transmission to an online financial trading/spread betting platform (IG.COM). He also failed to cooperate with the SRA's investigation, repeatedly failing to produce accounting records and bank statements and concealing the personal account. The Tribunal found dishonesty proved under the Ivey test and found breaches of the SARs, both the 2011 and 2019 Codes/Principles. He did not attend or engage; the hearing proceeded in his absence. Finding no exceptional circumstances (per Sharma), the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £35,469.10.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No improper use of client money
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest conduct
• Residential clients who were more vulnerable than commercial clients
• Repeated conduct extended over time
• Planned conduct involving multiple accounts and transfers
• Respondent knew dishonestly misusing client funds breached his obligations
• Experienced solicitor and sole owner/COLP/COFA/MLRO

Mitigating factors:

• No prior disciplinary findings
• Limited degree of cooperation in acknowledging client shortfall and inability to remedy
• Unevidenced references to personal, health and financial pressures