Thomas William John Loco

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

Thomas William John Loco, an unadmitted managing conveyancing clerk at Wolstenholmes Solicitors, was found to have made unauthorised payments from client account (13 payments totalling £18,745.21), failed to complete property purchases, and failed to complete Land Registry registrations. The Tribunal, satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of all three allegations, made a Section 43 order restricting his employment by solicitors without Law Society permission. The Tribunal proceeded in his absence after refusing his fourth adjournment request. No express finding of dishonesty was made; the Tribunal noted no evidence the monies were taken for personal use. He was ordered to pay costs of £8,000.

Duties found breached:

• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Catalogue of failures to protect clients' interests
• Partners had to make insurance claim and pay out £114,757.21 to rectify problems
• Involvement of relatives (wife as broker) without transparent disclosure to clients, giving rise to conflict of interest concerns

Mitigating factors:

• No evidence that monies had been taken for the Respondent's personal use
• Respondent was off work due to viral illness in December 2004