Rodney Whiston-Dew

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

Rodney Whiston-Dew, admitted 1988, was convicted on 6 November 2017 at Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and acting with intent to defraud HMRC, arising from a sophisticated fraudulent tax evasion scheme (purported Brazilian reforestation investment). He received a 10-year custodial sentence and director disqualification. He admitted breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6. The matter was resolved by agreed outcome on the papers. The Tribunal found this was a very serious offence of dishonesty and approved the agreed sanction of striking off. No order for costs was made given his limited means as a serving prisoner.

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Very serious offence of dishonesty
• Vast sums of money involved
• Offence was sophisticated and at the upper end of the scale of seriousness
• 10-year custodial sentence and director disqualification

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent disputed the conviction and sentence and was appealing (mitigation advanced but not endorsed by SRA)