Matthew Howells

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

Solicitor Matthew Howells was convicted at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on his guilty plea of stalking (without fear/alarm/distress) under s.2A(1) and (4) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, arising from repeated unwanted contact and unsolicited gifts sent to Person A between March and June 2022 following a relationship breakdown. He was sentenced to a 12-month Community Order, victim surcharge £85, compensation £500, prosecution costs £144 and a 2-year Restraining Order. The SRA brought proceedings alleging breaches of Principles 2 and 5. He admitted the allegation. Dealt with on the papers by Agreed Outcome, the Tribunal found high culpability and approved a 6-month suspension plus costs of £2,096. No express finding of dishonesty was made; the case involved a lack of integrity but no dishonesty.

Duties found breached:

• No unlawful discrimination or harassment
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct was intentional with evidence of planning and prior intent (items bought in advance)
• Continued over a period of time with repeated unwanted contact despite warnings to stop
• Caused harm and distress to Person A (per SRA)
• Convicted of a serious criminal offence; knew or ought to have known conduct breached obligations to protect public and reputation of profession
• High culpability

Mitigating factors:

• First-time offence with no previous disciplinary history and previously exemplary record
• Early guilty plea and full cooperation with criminal and regulatory investigations
• No dishonesty or financial gain
• Mental health difficulties and high anxiety at the time
• Engaged in therapy and rehabilitation
• Significant personal and professional consequences already suffered (loss of home, job, reputation)
• Isolated incident at low end of seriousness; court imposed lowest possible sanction