Abraham Verghese

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

The Respondent, a solicitor and former barrister, confirmed on oath before the Leeds Employment Tribunal that his witness statement was true, having denied making an abusive telephone call to another solicitor, then admitted under cross-examination that he had lied. He was also found to have been verbally aggressive during that telephone call while under the influence of alcohol at his employers' offices. The Tribunal proceeded in his absence (he was in India and unable to travel). It found both allegations proved and made an express finding of dishonesty on allegation 1.1 under the Bryant/Twinsectra test. With no exceptional circumstances, the Respondent was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £16,732.26.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Purposefully and intentionally made a false statement and lied on oath before the Employment Tribunal
• Was both a barrister and solicitor, well aware of professional obligations to be truthful
• Failed to engage with the disciplinary proceedings over a substantial period
• Telephone denial was at the core of his unfair dismissal claim; not a mistake

Mitigating factors:

• History of alcoholism for which he had received treatment
• On state pension benefits with limited means
• No previous disciplinary matters