Simon William Griffiths

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

Simon William Griffiths, a sole practitioner conveyancer, failed to fulfil an undertaking to redeem a Bank of Scotland charge, having paid away the deposit and completion monies to his own companies without retaining funds to redeem the mortgage. He then misled the buyers' solicitors (Red Kite) on two occasions stating the mortgage had been redeemed when it had not. He improperly withdrew £30,000 of client money from an estate, transferring it to his own company accounts and creating a false attendance note to conceal it, and made false statements on his PII proposal form by failing to disclose ongoing SRA investigations. The Tribunal found all allegations proved, including express findings of dishonesty in respect of the misleading correspondence (1.3) and the improper withdrawal (1.6), applying the Twinsectra test. Medical evidence (a counsellor's letter) was given little weight as it was filed out of time and the author was not a psychiatrist. The Respondent did not attend. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £31,200.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Honour professional undertakings

Aggravating factors:

• Created false handwritten attendance note to conceal misconduct
• Made false representations to the Forensic Investigation Officer
• Used client monies for own purposes via his own companies
• Continued and ongoing breach of undertaking - charge still unredeemed at hearing
• Client account shortfall not replaced
• Repeated misleading statements to deflect pressure and avoid referral to regulator

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary matters
• Admitted many of the allegations
• Indicated he no longer wished to practise