Decision record
Kerry Ann Stevens
Allegation / charges
Criminal Convictions, Dishonesty, SRA Principles 2019
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Kerry Ann Stevens, a solicitor practising criminal law, was convicted at Suffolk Magistrates' Court of two offences of fraud by false representation: failing to return to pay a £60.91 Harvester restaurant bill (Feb 2020) and falsely claiming to have paid for £43.47 of takeaway food (Jan 2021). Her appeal was dismissed. The SDT relied on the convictions as conclusive proof and found both allegations proved, expressly finding dishonesty under the Ivey test and breaches of Principles 2, 4 and 5. Proceeding in her absence, and finding no exceptional circumstances under Sharma/James, the Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered £4,489 costs.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Motivation of personal financial gain
- Offences were premeditated and deliberate
- Two criminal offences committed almost a year apart, not an isolated incident
- Element of attempted concealment (shutting door on delivery driver, evading recovery attempts)
- As a criminal law practitioner she knew she was in material breach of obligations
- Committed second offence weeks after informing employer of first offence