Sharon Pallagi

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

The Respondent, a solicitor and Court of Protection Panel Deputy, made unauthorised withdrawals totalling thousands of pounds from vulnerable clients' funds over nearly 3 years and altered two receipts to overstate payments. She admitted all allegations including dishonesty. The Tribunal made express findings of dishonesty and rejected her argument that her medical/depression issues amounted to exceptional circumstances ('cry for help'), noting periods of lucidity, planned conduct, and that she mixed and spent some funds. She was struck off and ordered to pay agreed costs of £8,209.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty on a number of occasions and deliberate conduct
• Repeated over a lengthy period of nearly 3 years (15 instances)
• Took advantage of vulnerable Court of Protection clients
• Attempted to conceal conduct by falsely recording reasons for withdrawals and altering receipts
• Harm to public and reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished long record
• Early admissions and cooperation with the regulator
• Genuine insight and remorse
• Repaid all funds taken (£32,561.12)
• Character references
• Under pressure and suffering medical/health issues at the time