A legal executive who had been with the same firm for 20 years has been banned after backdating two client signatures.

Robert Dallinson, who worked for York firm Harrowells Limited his whole legal career, was barred by the SRA following misconduct dating back to 2017.

The SRA’s regulatory settlement agreement stated that Dallinson was a specialist in powers of attorney, wills, probate and the administration of estates.

Instructed to prepare lasting powers of attorney for a client in May 2017, he arranged for the client’s doctor, acting as the certificate provider, to sign and date the documents.

Dallinson then met the client, who signed both LPAs, but he realised the client should have done this before the doctor’s signatures. The legal executive wrote in the date alongside the client’s signature to give the impression it was signed three weeks previously.

When the Office of the Public Guardian flagged an error with one of the LPAs, Dallinson re-drafted the document and asked the doctor to re-sign it. The client again signed it at a later date, and again Dallinson wrote in the wrong date alongside it to give the impression it was done earlier. The LPAs were registered with the OPG a few weeks later.

In March this year, the firm reviewed the case file after the local council asked questions about the earlier attorney-ship. During this review, the two examples of backdated signatures were discovered.

Dallinson was issued with a final written warning by his firm and his conduct reported to the SRA. He was found to have acted dishonestly and deliberately added the dates to make it appear like the client had signed first. In mitigation, he was considered to have shown insight and remorse for his actions and to have accepted responsibility for backdating the signatures.

He was made subject to a section 43 order, barring him from working for any firm without SRA permission, and ordered to pay £300 costs.

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