Paul Anthony Gibbon

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

Paul Anthony Gibbon, admitted 1985, was found to have received £235,000 of client money from Ms Grey into his personal bank account, misled her into believing it was a solicitors' client account, forged/procured her signature on a letter of authority to divert £30,000 from a third party into his personal account, failed to keep her informed, failed to account for her funds, gave and breached an unauthorised undertaking to counsel's clerks, left counsel's fees of over £84,000 unpaid, invoiced for £10,000 counsel's fees not incurred, and failed to respond to the SRA. The Tribunal made express findings of dishonesty on allegations 1.1-1.5. Proceeding in the Respondent's absence, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £34,091.04.

Duties found breached:

• Act only on proper, lawful instructions
• Costs and fee transparency to client
• Handle inadvertently received material
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Honour professional undertakings

Aggravating factors:

• Findings of dishonesty
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over more than a year
• Repeated attempts to conceal wrongdoing
• Breach of client's trust
• Experienced solicitor who understood obligations
• Previous 1994 disciplinary finding including paying client money into personal account
• No insight, limited admissions, failure to cooperate with SRA
• Client lost considerable sum (£235,000 paid; over £80,000 counsel's fees unpaid)