Solicitor who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds struck off

A MANCHESTER solicitor who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds by directing money from his company’s client account into his personal account has been struck off and ordered to pay nearly £66,000 in costs.

Andrew John Davies, 32, was a partner of Robert Meaton & Co based at Bartle House, Oxford Court in the city centre.

He was found to have taken £270,398.17 and £205,714.20 from the company’s client account in two separate transactions.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority hearing was told the interim forensic investigation report (IFIR) identified a minimum shortfall of £529,394.30 on July 30 2014.

Davies, a practising lawyer since 2008, was a partner for Meaton & Co from May 2009.

Following the death of Robert Meaton on December 2012, Davies was left the company in the will on condition he paid £170,000 to three benefactors over a four-year period.

The SRA’s forensic investigation officer found that Davies had made payments of £42,000 from the firm’s client account to meet the installment obligations when the money should have come from his own account.

Among the string of allegations was that Davies failed to keep accounting records property written up to show dealings with client money received, held or paid and made improprer transfers from the client account.

He failed to replace the shortage in the client account and misled the forensic investigation officer, providing falsified accounting records, documents and emails.

Davies misled cleints by providing them with falsified bank statements, payment debit slips that purported to show that he had paid their liabilities.

He sent a forged bank statement to a couple which purported to show their mortgage had been redeemed when it had not and provided forged building regulation certificates.

Davies also misled a barristers’ chambers and his employees by falsifiying and creating emails which indicated he had paid for the services of a barrister, when he had not.

Sitting in Birmingham, the tribunal said: “It appeared that the motivation for his conduct was for personal, financial gain.

“He wanted to gain the interest in the firm that he had been left, subject to payment, without paying for it and he was stealing money from clients and paying it into his personal account.

“The respondent (Davies)  made considerable efforts to disguise what he was doing and cover his tracks. His actions were planned and appeared to be escalating.

“He was stopped when RBS froze the firm’s accounts and alerted the SRA.
 
“The respondent was the senior partner in the firm and the only equity partner.

“He was the co-executor under the will and he took client money.

“He misled his employees and regulator. He acted in breach of a  position of trust. The respondent had complete control and responsibility for the circumstances giving rise to the misconduct.

“At the time in question he had sufficient experience to be able to run a Firm properly but chose to run it dishonestly.”

Davies was stuck off and ordered to pay costs of £65,867.40.