Antoinette Olivia Taylor

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

Sole practitioner Antoinette Olivia Taylor faced ten allegations arising from an SRA forensic investigation, including client account breaches (a shortage of over £20,000 concealed by 'phantom' book transfers), failure to notify the SRA and her insurers of the shortage, failure to inform mortgagee clients (TMW and BM) of material information in three conveyancing transactions bearing hallmarks of potential mortgage fraud, improperly acting in a suspicious share sale transaction involving a £1.58m payment to Dubai without due diligence, and making an untrue statement on a PII proposal form. All ten allegations were found proved. There was no allegation or finding of dishonesty, though the Tribunal found concealment in the PII form. The Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered costs of £28,000 inclusive of VAT and disbursements.

Duties found breached:

• No improper communication with the court
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• No conflict between current clients
• Handle inadvertently received material
• No improper use of client money
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• She knew or ought reasonably to have known that the conduct was in material breach of her obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• Involvement in transactions showing signs of potential mortgage fraud and money laundering yet failed to raise the alarm
• Concealment in relation to the PII proposal form
• Threatening tone of letters to client AL, particularly letter dated 26 January 2010
• Client money placed at risk for approximately twelve months without remedy
• Previous appearance before the Tribunal (given less weight as factual background post-dated these proceedings)

Mitigating factors:

• Reliance on others (book keeper, accountant) though held to be no defence
• Expressed remorse and accepted ultimate responsibility
• Admitted naivety with benefit of hindsight
• Long practising history since 1991