Anbananden Sooben

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

Mr Sooben, sole principal, COLP and COFA of Duncan Ellis Solicitors, was found to have provided misleading information to his professional indemnity insurer by failing to disclose the ongoing SRA investigation, to have breached the SRA Accounts Rules (including a £9,120 client account shortage, failed reconciliations, inadequate records, no client cashbook, and failure to correct breaches), and to have failed to supervise staff at the Colliers Wood branch, where an unadmitted caseworker (Mr Lingajothy) operated largely unsupervised. The Tribunal did NOT find dishonesty proved, though it found lack of integrity and that the failure to supervise was reckless. Two factual allegations (1.1.2 and 1.2) were not proved. He was suspended for 9 months with indefinite practice conditions and ordered to pay £35,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Not mislead the court
• Report serious misconduct of others
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Experienced solicitor who should have known conduct breached professional obligations
• Very little insight into seriousness of lapses
• Sought to deflect responsibility by blaming the SRA
• Recklessness found as aggravating feature regarding failure to supervise
• Financial self-interest (accepted £42,895 in cash July 2022-July 2023)
• High culpability; conduct caused serious harm to reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• No clients suffered loss
• 17 years' practice with unblemished regulatory record
• No previous disciplinary matters
• Continued paying run-off insurance cover to protect clients
• Acknowledged room for improvement in accounting

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["review_dishonesty_finding_cue_present"]