Lawyer struck off after accounts leave £100,000 shortfall
A SHEFFIELD lawyer has been struck off the roll for accounting mistakes amounting to £100,000.
Sole practitioner Victoria Louise Robinson, who operated from premises in Sheffield until she was shut down in 2014, transferred thousands of pounds from client accounts to the office account.
This resulted in the compensation fund having to pay out £231,000 in grants to former clients, while the SRA had recovered £128,000, leaving an overall shortage of £102,000.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that investigators from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) discovered a shortfall in the client account.
Transfers of lump sums from the client to the office account were carried out by Ms Robinson while in a ‘confused state’, as a result of alcohol-related problems that she was experiencing at the time.
One of which was £30,000 she mistakenly transferred in November 2013 as opposed to £3,000, and between January 20 and 21, 2014, two unauthorised withdrawals were made from the client account totalling £35,500.
Ms Robinson reported this to the police stating that the unauthorised withdrawals were likely to have been made via her iPad Air, which she had previously lent to a third party who was known to her.
When logging into her firm’s accounting information, she had selected the option to have the password and login details remembered, which may have enabled the third party to access the client account online.
The tribunal also heard that two payments for holidays were made, totalling £7,500.
Ms Robinson failed to refund the shortfall in the client account and keep properly written up accounting records, it was found.
Ms Robinson, who did not attend the hearing, admitted six charges relating to breaches of accounts rules, with a further allegation of dishonesty dropped.
She was removed from the roll and ordered to pay £12,500 in SRA costs.
The hearing also heard that Ms Robinson spent six months in rehabilitation and is no longer alcohol dependent.
