John Barrie Wilson

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

John Barrie Wilson faced five allegations before the SDT. Allegation 1.1 (lack of integrity in preferring NatWest over HMRC) was NOT proved - the Tribunal could not be sure his conduct demonstrated lack of integrity, as he may have been firefighting to keep his businesses afloat. Allegations 1.2 (diminishing public trust by preferring NatWest, to whom he had given a personal guarantee, over HMRC), 1.3 (seven-year director disqualification by the High Court), 1.4 (paying a client's £800 compensation award effectively from their own client monies) and 1.5 (charity dinner non-client monies held in client account) were all proved beyond reasonable doubt. No dishonesty was found; indeed the disqualification judge expressly stated Mr Wilson was not dishonest and lacked probity, finding only marked incompetence. The Respondent did not attend; the Tribunal proceeded in his absence. Sanction: indefinite suspension from practice, with costs of £28,000.00.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Account for interest on client money

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct in allegation 1.2 was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a period of time
• Ignored professional insolvency advice and tried to trade out of trouble
• Considerable loss to the public purse (unpaid tax, NI and VAT)
• Previous appearance before the Tribunal with findings including failing to act in clients' best interests and raising bills to decrease funds available to creditors
• Misconduct occurred more or less contemporaneously with earlier disciplinary proceedings against him
• Breach of a position of trust regarding client money

Mitigating factors:

• The Tribunal found there were no mitigating factors whatsoever (misconduct in allegation 1.2 was perhaps driven partly by circumstances and NatWest's decision to withdraw overdraft)