Vanessa Helen Tofield and Paul Julian Mark Bailey

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

The Respondent, sole solicitor partner at Alo & Co, failed to pay the 2009/2010 ARP indemnity premium (£25,340.59) and run off premium (£21,340.59), placing him in policy default under Rule 16.2, and failed to respond to SRA enquiries. The Tribunal found he was still a partner at the material time as he had not effectively notified interested parties of his resignation. All three allegations were proved beyond reasonable doubt. No dishonesty was found (the earlier Tribunal had also expressly declined to find dishonesty). Given the matter's close connection to earlier proceedings, a very short 21-day suspension was imposed, with costs of £900 not to be enforced without leave given his bankruptcy.

Duties found breached:

• No improper communication with the court
• Professional indemnity insurance

Aggravating factors:

• As sole qualified solicitor partner he had responsibility for the firm's PII and run off insurance, important for client protection
• He buried his head in the sand and ignored his obligations

Mitigating factors:

• Matter closely connected to and an additional aspect of a situation already dealt with by an earlier Tribunal
• Bankrupt with severe financial difficulties
• Personal issues at the time