Jamie Stepehnson

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

Jamie Stephenson practised as a sole practitioner under the style 'Keyne Law' without SRA authorisation from around April to November 2014, holding himself out as authorised and regulated using a fabricated SRA number, and lied to an SRA Forensic Investigator by falsely stating he did not hold client monies or operate a client account. The Tribunal found allegations 1.1 and 1.2 proved with express findings of dishonesty on both. Allegation 1.3 (forging two eviction notices) was not proved beyond reasonable doubt. Despite mental health mitigation, no exceptional circumstances existed to avoid strike off. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £29,000.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty alleged and proved
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of time
• Lied to his regulator to conceal wrongdoing
• Continued to operate the firm even after a solicitor raised the issue of non-authorisation
• Knew or ought to have known conduct breached obligations to protect the public and reputation of profession

Mitigating factors:

• Suffering from mental health issues at the relevant time (though not sufficient to constitute exceptional circumstances)
• No client suffered any losses
• Experienced significant personal difficulties including marriage breakdown, assault allegation, car crashes and family injury