A law firm employee transferred hundreds of thousands from estate funds into his own company and tried to suggest the beneficiary had approved it, according to a Solicitors Regulation Authority decision.
Christopher Foster, a private client executive with Nottinghamshire firm Robert Barber & Sons, misappropriated around £219,000 over six months in 2022 from monies which had been left to an individual by a deceased client.
These funds were transferred to a private company which had been recently incorporated by Foster and for which he was the sole director and sole shareholder. He also fabricated a contact note to suggest that this transfer was carried out at the beneficiary's request.
The firm uncovered the misconduct in 2023 when a partner began helping Foster with his workload and found improper payments coming out of the client account. In particular, the partner was concerned that certain transfers appeared not to have been sanctioned by trustees. Foster was suspended and the firm reported the matter to its insurer and to the police. He was arrested in July 2023 and subsequently released on police bail.
In addition to the funds paid into his company, Foster misappropriated funds from another estate over nine months by arranging for funds belonging to the deceased to be paid to him personally. The SRA found he had also failed to progress a different client matter for 18 months and produced fraudulent documents to mislead supervisors about what was happening on the file, which in turn misled the client.
Foster was found to have acted dishonestly and without integrity, and he was disqualified from managing or working for any other regulated law firm. He was ordered to pay £1,350 costs.
Robert Barber & Sons closed in October 2024 and was acquired by another firm.
