The oversight regulator has allocated an initial £60,000 to investigating the SRA’s actions over the collapse of the national firm Axiom Ince.

Board papers released this week by the Legal Services Board revealed the sum had been approved for the current financial year. The costs will be met by contributions from regulated lawyers.

Northern Ireland firm Carson McDowell is undertaking the review of the SRA case, with £10,000 being spent on the matter in January.

The LSB said it will ‘closely liaise’ with the firm over the next two months to monitor legal spending. A report is due this spring.

The LSB has said it wants to establish the ‘adequacy, efficiency and effectiveness’ of the SRA’s actions in the lead-up to the firm being shut down in October.

This may involve interviews with SRA executives as part of a probe into management oversight and supervision, the quality of decision-making and whether the regulator acted in a reasonable timeframe.

Axiom DWFM had acquired the much larger Ince & Co in April and three months later SRA investigators visited the firm. Two weeks after that, three directors were suspended by the regulator and the intervention into the whole firm was completed after a further six week.

More than £60m was believed to be missing from the Axiom Ince client account, and the Serious Fraud Office announced in November that it was conducting a criminal investigation, with seven individuals arrested and various sites searched.

The LSB board papers also note that the budget for its annual conference next month is also set at £60,000, with the event expected to come in at slightly less.

This is despite the attendance capacity increasing from 250 to 280. The board noted that a budget saving had been made because organisers had secured Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, as an external speaker at no cost.

 

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