Richard Chan

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

Richard Chan, a solicitor specialising in property work, declared falsely low purchase prices to HMRC on two property transactions (a house bought for £525,000 declared as £165,000, and an office bought for £763,750 declared as £100,000), avoiding stamp duty land tax in excess of £50,000 and incurring HMRC penalties. The Tribunal found Allegation 1 proved including dishonesty (applying the Twinsectra test) on both transactions, breaching Principles 2 and 6. Allegation 2 (failing to report the HMRC penalty to the SRA, having actively sought to conceal it) was proved as a breach of Principle 7. Allegation 3 (firm promoting SDLT avoidance schemes) was found not proved for lack of evidence. Allegation 4 (failure to comply with section 44B notices) was proved as a breach of Principle 7. The Respondent did not attend and the hearing proceeded in absence. He was struck off the Roll. The body of the judgment assessed costs at £18,020.40, but the Statement of Full Order fixed costs at £15,000.00.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No taking unfair advantage
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Express finding of dishonesty in both transactions
• Motivation of personal financial gain
• Planned, deliberate, calculated and repeated misconduct over a period of time
• Active concealment of wrongdoing, including seeking to keep HMRC penalty confidential to hide it from the SRA
• Experienced solicitor (15 years PQE) with full personal responsibility
• Attempted to shift blame onto his own firm/'agent'
• Lack of insight and failure to engage with proceedings
• Previous disciplinary findings (3-year suspension and conditions imposed in 2016 for related period conduct)

Mitigating factors:

• Eventually paid the outstanding SDLT, penalties and interest (though only under protest and after argument with HMRC)