Heather Frances Head

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

Heather Frances Head, a non-solicitor legal secretary employed by Taylor Poole solicitors, was found to have acted in a seriously dishonest fashion. She misled the firm's partner about transfer of completion monies in a conveyancing matter by providing a forged Abbey National memorandum, and later attempted to mislead the Sheriff's Office during enforcement proceedings with a fake London Scottish Bank letter. She accepted a criminal caution. The Tribunal made a section 43 order prohibiting her employment by solicitors without Law Society permission and ordered her to pay costs of \u00a33,300.

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Not mislead third parties or opponents

Aggravating factors:

• Used access to Abbey National letterhead to create a fake/forgery
• Accepted a criminal caution for obtaining property by deception, making a false instrument and using a false instrument
• Initially denied the conduct to the Law Society before later admitting it

Mitigating factors:

• Admitted all allegations in her letter of 18 October 2006
• Asserted conduct was not premeditated and occurred while in a stressed state, suffering a breakdown
• All monies were subsequently repaid to Taylor Poole
• Did not intend to continue working in a solicitor's office