Philip James Houlton

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

Philip James Houlton, a solicitor's clerk (not a solicitor) employed by Lingen & Co., was convicted at Knutsford Crown Court on 27 July 1990 of six counts of obtaining property by deception, one count of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, and fraudulent evasion of VAT, receiving sentences of up to five years' imprisonment. The frauds, relating to his video-recording company, involved nearly £1m (£450,000 from the Welsh Office, £300,000 from Midland Bank, plus VAT monies). The Law Society was not notified until 1996. The respondent did not appear. The Tribunal found the offences clearly involved dishonesty and made a Section 43 Order controlling his future employment within the profession, plus fixed costs of £1,352.46.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations