Kenneth John Baillie Stewart Macleod

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

The Respondent, an experienced Inverness solicitor, recommended that his client (the Secondary Complainer) invest/loan £10,000 into Company 1, an entity connected to another client, Mr X, in which the Respondent himself held all shares and later became director. He acted in a clear conflict of interest and, over five years, deliberately failed to disclose highly relevant information including his own financial involvement, police objections to Mr X (criminal history, aliases, fraud prosecution), trading difficulties, and the company's dissolution. The client lost his entire £10,000 investment. The Tribunal found professional misconduct and made an express finding of dishonesty under the Ivey test. Given the dishonesty and complete lack of insight, the Respondent was struck off the Roll. He was found liable for the Complainers' and Tribunal's expenses (taxed) and separately ordered to pay £5,000 compensation (the statutory maximum) to the Secondary Complainer with 8% interest.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients
• Report serious misconduct of others
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was deliberate and dishonest, continuing over five years
• Previous finding of unsatisfactory professional conduct for an analogous conflict of interest matter
• Conduct had potential to seriously damage the reputation of the profession
• Complete lack of insight into his own conduct
• Repeatedly blamed others (Mr X, his bookkeeper, a political opponent, the Fiscal)
• No remorse and failure to compensate despite repeated promises since 2016
• High risk nature of the investment aggravated the conflict

Mitigating factors:

• Lengthy period of practice with no previous appearances before the Tribunal
• Misconduct restricted to consequences of a single conflict situation / single piece of work
• Stated intention to compensate the Secondary Complainer