K Sritharan and Another

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

Mr Sritharan, sole principal of M K Sri & Co, made round sum transfers of client money to office account over a long period to keep his firm afloat, resulting in a cash shortage of approximately £1.5 million and the client account going into overdraft twice. He relied on fictitious 'unbilled costs' and a 'business reserve account' (personal investments not held in a bank/building society) to disguise the shortfall. He also acted deceitfully towards mortgagee GMAC by accepting remortgage advances without redeeming prior mortgages or performing required conveyancing. The Tribunal expressly found dishonesty applying the Twinsectra test and struck him off, ordering him to pay all costs. The Second Respondent, a salaried partner, admitted strict liability breaches of the Accounts Rules for authorising some round sum transfers; with much lower culpability she was suspended for 3 months.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• No improper use of client money
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports

Aggravating factors:

• Round sum transfers made frequently and in large amounts over a long period since at least August 2001
• Client account overdrawn on two occasions meaning every client's funds were misapplied
• Cash shortage of approximately £1.5 million identified
• Deceitful conduct towards mortgagee GMAC - accepting remortgage advance without redeeming prior mortgages, failing to carry out searches, signing inaccurate certificates of title
• Knew client moneys were sacrosanct but used them to run his firm

Mitigating factors:

• Mr Sritharan fully cooperated in the investigation
• Made substantial payments into client account to reduce shortfall (£550,000 and £676,613)
• Large number of written testimonials attesting to his competence
• No finding of dishonesty in the intervention proceedings
• Did not abscond with client money or disobey orders
• For Second Respondent: limited role as salaried partner with no equity interest, much lower culpability, admitted allegations at earliest opportunity, cooperated fully, faced grave financial difficulty, deep distress