Firm owner who admitted ‘winging it’ struck off the roll

A law firm director who dipped into the client account and admitted he was a risk to the profession has been struck off the roll.

Dominic Macknight authorised a total of 10 transfers worth more than £16,000 from the client to the office account while he led Blackburn firm Lawson Taylor Solicitors.

He admitted the transfers were improper and that he used the money to deal with the firm’s financial difficulties. Macknight told Solicitors Regulation Authority investigators: ‘I knew at the time when I transferred the money it did not belong to the firm. I’ve been winging and praying it – I can see that I am a risk to the profession.’

Macknight was admitted in 2016 but after five years he became the sole manager of the firm following the resignation of a former director.

The SRA received two reports about Macknight and the firm in 2022 and later that year intervened to shut down the practice.

Macknight admitted that in June and July 2022 he had made two transfers worth £4,600 to reduce the debit balance in the firm’s office bank account, as there was no overdraft facility and the firm was more than £30,000 in debt. A further eight improper transfers were found by investigators that could not be accounted for. To date, none of the missing money has been returned.

Macknight was found to have repeatedly tried to mislead SRA investigators. He claimed to have no judgment debts against him when in fact there were five, he claimed to have a bookkeeper when they had in fact resigned, he said books were up to date when they had not been done for over a year, and wrongly stated that clients accounts were reconciled monthly.

Macknight had initially sought to rely upon a mitigation statement to argue before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal why there were exceptional circumstances that might prevent him being struck off. He changed his mind at the start of his hearing last month and admitted all the allegations.

The tribunal found no mitigating circumstances and that his misconduct had been planned, deliberate and repeated over several months. Its ruling said that Macknight had ‘caused serious harm to the firm’s clients and the reputation of the profession by repeatedly taking client money from the client account and transferring it to the office account and not replacing the money taken from the client account’.

The SRA applied for £9,330 in costs but no order was made on the basis of Macknight’s personal financial position.