A solicitor who allowed deposit monies to be transferred to a fraudster has been fined £3,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Richard Gouldsborough, formerly with Bradford firm Woodhall Solicitors Ltd, had been the fee earner on a commercial property sale for a purported client who provided bank details in the name of a third party company.
The SRA said there was no evidence that Goldsborough made any enquiries into the company. The firm received the deposit money from the buyer’s solicitors and Goldsborough requested that a colleague transfer this to the purported seller. It was only after the sum of almost £68,000 was transferred in February 2021 to the third party account that it transpired the client was a fraudster impersonating the real owner.
The firm notified the authorities and the transaction did not complete.
Goldsborough admitted failing to conduct sufficient scrutiny and monitoring of the transaction and thereby breaching SRA rules. He said that this was an isolated incident and a mistake caused by an oversight. It happened a week after he had been suffering from Covid-19 and the fraud was a sophisticated one which passed client due diligence.
The SRA said the seller’s deposit was not refunded by the bank for another year and that the breach was serious. There was a low risk of repetition, particularly in the light of the degree of insight and remorse shown by Gouldsborough, but the regulator also needed to highlight the risks to other solicitors of not making proper checks.
Gouldsborough, who has since moved to another firm, also agreed to pay £1,350 costs.
His former colleague, solicitor and firm director Lubna Khan, was rebuked and agreed to pay £600 costs after admitting to authorising the bank transfer on Gouldsborough’s request.
