Neil Richard Bolton

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

Neil Richard Bolton, a conveyancing solicitor at Harvey Roberts, admitted all allegations brought by the SRA in an agreed outcome. He made a personal unsecured £60,000 loan to a client without ensuring independent legal advice (own-interest conflict), provided banking facilities through the firm's client account, and failed to advise lender clients of material facts in property transactions. He was also convicted at Manchester Crown Court on 23 October 2017 of 7 counts of failing to comply with money laundering regulations and 1 count of failing to disclose information in the regulated sector, receiving a 9-month custodial sentence. His conduct facilitated mortgage frauds and money laundering of around £400,000. The sentencing judge expressly noted there was no evidence of deliberate dishonesty, but found systemic serious irregularities, not mere inadvertence. The parties agreed striking off was the appropriate sanction, with agreed costs of £6,000.

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• AML and crime-prevention compliance