A senior solicitor who asked a trainee to amend a property form to avoid making a court order has been struck off.
Michael Robert Thompson, formerly a partner with south Wales firm Marchant Harries, caused the trainee to make an amendment followed by a re-amendment and submit it to Companies House and HM Land Registry.
Thompson, admitted in 2007, had told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal he believed he was allowed to act in this way because he had been shown during his own training how to ‘Tipp-Ex out’ errors on documents.
But the tribunal found that even if Thompson genuinely believed he had been taught to act in this way, it was ‘fundamentally implausible’ that he could believe this conduct was allowed, several years on.
The tribunal said: ‘By the time Mr Thompson was a partner and had seven years post-qualified experience, he would (if honest) have been incapable of believing that having the deed altered in this way would be acceptable.’
It was heard that Thompson’s firm had acted for a property purchaser and had 21 days from completion in 2019 to register the mortgage with Companies House. The application was rejected because the filing fee had not been attached. The trainee re-submitted the paperwork with the fee four days later, but this time it was rejected as out of time.
The trainee spoke to Thompson, who effectively ran the firm’s conveyancing department, and he told her there was no need to apply to the court for an extension and she should change the date of the mortgage to a later date to bring the application back within the 21-day limit.
The unnamed trainee, who gave evidence to the tribunal, said she had the impression this conduct was ‘dodgy’ but was told it was ‘fine’ by Thompson and she trusted him to give sound advice.
In his evidence, Thompson told the tribunal he did not consider he was doing anything wrong at the time, based on training he claimed to have received.
He set out a number of personal factors, including ill-health, which he had been dealing with at this time. Thompson told the tribunal that the effect of these issues had been that he ‘was not thinking straight’ and was on ‘autopilot’ at the time of these events. He apologised to the tribunal for what had happened.
The tribunal found Thompson acted dishonestly and without integrity, adding there was no evidence that the balance of his state of mind should displace what a solicitor would think was acceptable. The submission that he had been shown how to Tipp-Ex out errors during his own training was rejected.
Thompson’s representative argued he should be suspended rather than struck off, saying he was a ‘safe, competent and professional man’ whose conduct should not be treated the same as a fraudster seeking to make financial gain. The tribunal said Thompson had wanted to conceal an error and was in full control of these matters. He continued to blame others and was unable to show insight into the seriousness of his actions.
He was struck off and ordered to pay £22,200 costs.
