Peter Wareing

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

Peter Wareing, a self-employed barrister of less than three years' standing, supplied legal services and exercised rights of audience between July 2015 and February 2017 without a qualified person in place and while practising as a sole practitioner from home, including to public access clients. He initially denied but admitted all three charges during cross-examination. The Tribunal applied the 'holding out' sanctioning guidance category (providing legal services for financial gain where the client is misled into believing the barrister is entitled to practise). Considering aggravating and mitigating factors, and declining suspension chiefly to avoid disrupting his new appropriate chambers arrangements, the Tribunal imposed a fine of £500 per charge, totalling £1,500. No express finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• Competence

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct occurred over a lengthy period (July 2015 to early 2017)
• Multiple Bar Council email communications highlighting the position to him
• Previous disciplinary findings (26 May 2017) involving similar breaches of regulatory requirements
• Conduct likely to undermine trust and confidence in the profession
• Motivation of financial gain
• Apparent lack of insight; late admission of charges

Mitigating factors:

• Admitted charges, albeit at the last moment
• Relatively junior in the profession
• Now in chambers with an appropriate qualified person in place
• Had on one occasion contacted the Bar Council Ethics Helpline