Gregory Craig Davies

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

Gregory Craig Davies, a solicitor and director of Catherine Higgins Law Limited, was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court on 28 January 2019 of attempting to commit fraud by abuse of position and dishonestly making false representations, defrauding his employer of £13,397.98 over a period, and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment (concurrent). He admitted breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by agreed outcome, found dishonesty and struck him off the Roll of Solicitors, ordering costs of £4,000.

Duties found breached:

• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Commission of serious criminal offences involving dishonesty leading to a custodial sentence
• Creating, presenting and relying on multiple fraudulent documents in his role as a solicitor causing loss of over £13,000
• Fraudulent actions across multiple files and client matters over a period of time in a persistent and sophisticated way
• Attempts to conceal offending by remotely deleting files/interfering with the investigation
• Misconduct he knew or ought to have known breached obligations to the administration of justice and reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary matters
• Admitted all allegations
• Lack of previous convictions and psychological/health diagnoses (Dr Card reports)
• Steps taken to return to a law-abiding life; guilty pleas given full credit