Susan Louise Lowe

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

Susan Louise Lowe, a solicitor specialising in Court of Protection Deputyship work, was found to have misappropriated £170,025 from Deputyship accounts of four vulnerable clients (including unauthorised loans and costs taken after clients had died), made an untrue statement to an SRA investigator, created a false memorandum to explain an improper transfer, and took £222,257.74 in management costs without seeking SCCO assessment. The Tribunal found dishonesty (applying the Ivey test) proved on allegations 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3, and found lack of integrity and breaches of multiple Principles and Accounts Rules. With no exceptional circumstances, she was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £15,392.90.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Misuse of funds belonging to vulnerable Court of Protection clients held in a fiduciary position of trust
• Course of conduct extending over three years with ample opportunity to reflect
• Misappropriation of £170,025 including unauthorised undocumented unsecured interest-free loans
• Created a false memorandum and gave an untrue explanation to the SRA investigating officer, bringing the first investigation to a close
• Sought to conceal conduct via misleading letter to the OPG and misleading correspondence to third parties
• Experienced specialist who had even helped formulate the Deputyship rules and was fully familiar with all relevant rules

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings
• Repaid the misappropriated sums and ensured no client lost out financially
• No allegation that she had overcharged any client
• Personal and family difficulties including a relapse of a medical condition and the death of her father-in-law