Manager who faked solicitor's signature banned from profession

A law firm manager who faked his solicitor’s signature on documents and dipped into client funds has been barred from working in the profession. 

A Solicitors Regulation Authority decision notice published yesterday states that Andrew James Thomas, a non-solicitor, has been disqualified from the profession for the way he ran Birmingham firm Elvetham Law Limited.

The firm was intervened into last September as the SRA had reason to suspect dishonesty on the part of Thomas, who had founded the business in 2020.

Investigators found that in 2022 Thomas fabricated a solicitor’s signature on an undertaking and a witness statement. He then impersonated the same solicitor on the phone and in written correspondence with another firm.

He also caused or allowed withdrawals from Elvetham Law’s client account leading to a minimum cash shortage of more than £20,000. For five months he had failed to carry out client account reconciliations and failed to properly maintain the firm’s accounting records.

The SRA said Thomas’ conduct was ‘deliberate, it was dishonest and it posed a risk to the reputation of the firm and the wider profession’.

He will be banned from acting as a head of legal practice, head of finance and administration, a manager or an employee of any firm, in accordance with section 99 of the Legal Services Act 2007.