Philip James Houlton

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

Philip James Houlton, a solicitor's clerk (not a solicitor) employed by Lingen & Co, was convicted at Knutsford Crown Court in 1990 of multiple counts of obtaining property/pecuniary advantage by deception and fraudulent VAT evasion, involving nearly £1 million, and sentenced to up to five years imprisonment. The Tribunal found the offences involved dishonesty and made a Section 43 order controlling his future employment within the solicitors' profession, and ordered him to pay costs of £1,352.46. The respondent did not appear.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty

Aggravating factors:

• Fraud on a massive scale (nearly £1 million: £450,000 from the Welsh Office, £300,000 from the bank, substantial VAT monies)
• Deliberate and unscrupulous deception
• Received prison sentences of up to five years