John Robert Peter Middleton

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

Sole practitioner John Robert Peter Middleton was found to have committed all seven allegations, including practising without a practising certificate, failing to act in clients' best interests, misleading the claimant's solicitor by an untrue email, failing to comply with an Adjudicator's direction, failing to deliver Accountant's Reports, failing to maintain accounting records, and failing to respond to the SRA. The Applicant expressly did not allege or plead dishonesty. The Respondent did not attend. The Tribunal imposed an indefinite suspension to protect the public and the profession's reputation, ordered costs to be assessed if not agreed, and made the Adjudicator's £1,000 compensation direction enforceable as a High Court Order.

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Disclose adverse law to the court
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• Hold a current practising certificate

Aggravating factors:

• Continued to practise while uncertificated
• Sent an untrue email to claimant's solicitors
• Failed to pay compensation and costs ordered by the Adjudicator
• Failed to respond to SRA correspondence

Mitigating factors:

• Accepted breach of Rule 32 and practising while uncertificated at the outset of inspection