Andrew John Peters

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

Andrew John Peters, an employed solicitor at Martin Smith & Co, was found to have failed to properly account for money received from clients over the period March 2013 to October 2016, taking cash and bank transfer payments (around £16,000 admitted received) which he retained for his own personal use rather than banking them with the firm. The firm reimbursed clients £26,396 across 35 matters. He was also convicted of drink driving and driving uninsured with non-compliant tyres in May 2016, and failed to report those convictions and a County Court Judgment (with Attachment of Earnings Order) to the SRA. The Tribunal applied the Ivey test and found dishonesty proved, finding he knew he was retaining money belonging to the firm or clients and using it for his own purposes. He did not attend and was struck off, ordered to pay costs of £19,000.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty alleged and proved
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of about 3 years
• Respondent knew he was in material breach of obligations
• Sought cash payments from clients who trusted him
• Did not seek to make good the losses or notify regulator
• No insight into severity of conduct
• Two separate criminal offences committed
• Failed to report misconduct to regulator

Mitigating factors:

• Made some admissions