Jackie Daniel

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

Jackie Daniel, an office manager (non-solicitor) at Criminal Law Advocates and sister of the senior partner, failed to arrange the firm's professional indemnity insurance and repeatedly assured the partners it was in place when it was not. She submitted false Forms RF1 to the SRA naming Z as insurer when cover had lapsed, submitted an incomplete RF1 for 2010-2011 knowing there was no qualifying insurance, and destroyed correspondence from the SRA and claim-related documents to conceal the position. The Tribunal found the facts proved beyond reasonable doubt and found dishonesty (Twinsectra test) in respect of the PII conduct and the Forms RF1; no dishonesty finding on the PG/HM correspondence as it was not pleaded. The Respondent did not attend. The Tribunal made a Section 43 order controlling her employment and ordered costs of £5,463.41.

Duties found breached:

• Handle inadvertently received material
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Self-report to the regulator

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct caused dire consequences for the firm, being the sole reason or precipitating cause of its closure
• Sustained pattern of lies and deception over multiple years
• Destruction of correspondence to conceal misconduct

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent admitted much of her conduct in a signed and witnessed statement