Mark Robert Westwood

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

Mark Robert Westwood, a solicitor admitted in 1985 and a property consultant, admitted acting in five conveyancing transactions between September 2016 and October 2020 where there was a conflict or significant risk of an own interest conflict between his lender clients and himself/immediate family, and failing to disclose his relationship to the borrowers to the lenders, contrary to the Lenders Handbook. He signed certificates of title certifying the contrary. The matter was resolved by agreed outcome on the papers. The SRA withdrew the denied breaches (Principle 2/2011 and Principle 5/2019) and the recklessness aggravating factor. No dishonesty was found. The Tribunal imposed a fine of £12,500 (top end of Level 3) and ordered costs of £19,670.

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Disclose material information to client
• Handle inadvertently received material
• No conflict between current clients
• No own-interest conflict
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Direct responsibility for the misconduct giving rise to high culpability
• Experienced solicitor in property law who should have known better
• Risk of harm to lender clients and harm to reputation of the legal profession
• Signed certificates of title certifying the contrary to lenders

Mitigating factors:

• No dishonesty (allegations of lack of integrity and recklessness withdrawn)
• Genuine remorse and insight
• Open and frank admissions from the earliest opportunity
• Full cooperation with the SRA and SDT proceedings
• Remedial action including attending courses on the Lenders Handbook and compliance
• No actual loss caused to anyone
• Conduct not widespread - only five matters over a four year period out of approximately 2,500-3,000 transactions
• Historical conduct (2016-2020)