John Charles Wright

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

Mr Wright, a solicitor and Manager at Ashley Wilson LLP, failed to disclose to the Firm and its vendor clients his continued direct involvement in the purchase of a property (in financial arrangements, instructing the buyers' solicitors, preparing a pre-action protocol letter alleging misrepresentation, and instructing Counsel), acting in an own-client conflict. He also instructed the buyers' solicitors to make payments from client account unconnected to an underlying transaction. He admitted both allegations. The Tribunal found he acted without integrity (no finding of dishonesty), motivated by reducing the purchase price to his benefit. It approved the agreed outcome of a £32,000 fine plus costs of £15,600 + VAT.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Motivated by desire to reduce purchase price to his own benefit and clients' detriment
• Conduct in direct conflict with duties owed to Firm's client
• Experienced solicitor, wholly responsible
• Conduct was planned

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated incident in a previously unblemished career
• Co-operated with the SRA
• Made early and full admissions