Peter Phillip Taylor

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

Peter Phillip Taylor, a solicitor and director at Nightingales Solicitors, was convicted at Chester Crown Court on 4 April 2016 of fraud by abuse of position and theft, having defrauded estates of clients of approximately £370,000 while acting as attorney and controlling probate. He was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. The SRA brought allegations of breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6 arising from the convictions. The Respondent admitted all allegations and did not attend. The Tribunal found the allegations proved beyond reasonable doubt and found dishonesty. Given the seriousness and dishonesty, the only appropriate sanction was striking off. He was ordered to pay costs of £2,500.

Duties found breached:

• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Planned offending involving serious breach of trust
• Victims were vulnerable
• Offending continued over a period of time
• Committed in the course of his work as a solicitor
• Solicitor of considerable experience
• Motivated by greed

Mitigating factors:

• Full and frank admissions to Police, Court, SRA and Tribunal
• Genuine remorse and shame
• Genuine insight
• Early and unequivocal guilty pleas
• Cooperation with authorities
• Previously of impeccable character