'Skeleton in the cupboard' senior partner agrees strike-off

A retired senior partner has admitted he was dishonest by improperly transferring more than £19,000 from client accounts through unjustifiable invoices.

Andrew Hugh Butler, admitted in 1981, was struck off after investigators found he had billed estates he was handling for work that had not been undertaken. In another matter, Butler also admitted he had a ‘bit of a mental block’ after failing to bank more than 400 client cheques over 25 years.

In an agreement outcome with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Butler accepted that he should be struck off.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was told that Butler had retired from partnership with Kent firm Worthingtons in 2017, but it had later emerged that a cash shortage of £19,289 had been caused by improper transfers from the client to office account.

The firm had been instructed to handle the estate of one client in 2000 and an invoice appeared in 2012 for £6,000 for professional charges where there was no calculation of costs. A further invoice dated 2018 was issued for the final administration of the estate. Investigators could find no evidence of the invoices being issued to any party.

Butler told the SRA he had thought at the time that estate billing was not up to date, hence he submitted the bills in question. He revisited earlier cost calculations to ‘justify’ the new bills but accepted that what he had done was dishonest.

In the other matter, a testator had died in 1993 and created a life-tenancy for his wife, which included a right to share income. She died in 2005 and the estate was distributed, but without certain shareholdings being sold or dividends accounted for.

The unpresented cheques had a total value of around £70,000, which was paid back by Butler to the firm in 2019.

He explained to the SRA that due to the pressure of work, the dividend cheques ‘got put to one side’ and the longer they were left the harder it became to deal with them. He could not cope with dealing with the money coming in – describing it as his ‘skeleton in the cupboard’ – and the cheques ended up being filed away. Butler did not tell anyone at the firm what was happening and stated he never intended to claim the money.

In non-agreed mitigation, Butler said he was sincerely remorseful for his conduct and that he let down his family, clients and the staff and former partners of Worthingtons. He was struck off and agreed to pay £16,650 costs.