Maria Williams

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

Maria Williams, a consultant solicitor, admitted three allegations involving dishonesty: retaining £2,000 of £4,500 cash received from client Ms CS without authority and failing to pay it into client account; altering a counsel's fee note to disguise the true payment date; and asking a colleague (Mr Poyser) via text message to remove the altered fee note from documents being sent to the SRA. She admitted all allegations and the aggravating feature of dishonesty. The matter was resolved on the papers by Agreed Outcome. The Tribunal found strike off appropriate given the repeated dishonesty over 16 months, and ordered her struck off with costs of £3,678.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Three episodes of dishonest conduct over a 16-month period
• First incident motivated by personal gain
• Subsequent acts planned, premeditated and self-serving to cover up initial dishonesty
• Previous disciplinary history (1 year suspension in 2006 for accounts rules breaches)

Mitigating factors:

• Deep regret for her conduct
• Impaired physical and mental health at the time
• No financial loss caused as counsel was reimbursed from her personal funds