A managing partner and solicitor of more than 50 years has been struck off after investigators found hundreds of unpresented disbursement cheques in a filing cabinet in his office.

Ian Caunt Wilson, admitted in 1969, tried to argue that his firm’s accounts manager had filed the cheques and that he had tried in vain to stop the practice. But the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Wilson’s assertions to be ‘disingenuous and lacking in credibility’ and that he had allowed a situation where more than 700 unpresented cheques worth around £233,000 were stored over at least three years.

The tribunal found Wilson’s conduct to have been ‘self-serving, financially motivated and intended to keep the firm operating which was to his benefit as sole equity partner’.

‘The misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated over a protracted period of three years,’ added the tribunal. ‘It represented an abuse of power on Mr Wilson’s part in his position as managing partner and sole practitioner. He sought to conceal his misconduct by concealing the unpresented cheques in a filing cabinet in his office and seeking to blame others throughout the forensic investigation.’

Writing a cheque

Source: iStock

Wilson jointly set up Manchester firm Lyons Wilson Solicitors in 1979 and then ran it as a sole practitioner. More than two thirds of the firm’s work was in personal injury, and the tribunal heard that it received monies from the defendants’ insurers to settle costs and disbursements.

Cheques were then written to the providers, along with covering letters, and entered onto client ledgers as having been paid. However, the letters and attached cheques were placed in the locked cabinet and not sent out.

In total, 743 cheques were found, of which 479 related to unpaid professional disbursements worth £152,000 and 264 were for unpaid business liabilities adding up to £80,000.

The tribunal heard that the biggest debts were to medical reporting agencies Doctors Chambers (£85,000) and Speed Medical (£60,000), and to national firm Irwin Mitchell (£55,000) in relation to a fee sharing agreement.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, prosecuting, said Wilson was either aware of the practice of hording cheques or had such a ‘woeful disregard to the financial management of his firm that he effectively turned a blind eye to it’.

The allegations were based on three reports about the finances of the firm – one from an anonymous source and the other two from a solicitor within the firm. The whistleblower had raised concerns in 2021. The firm was shut down in March 2022.

Wilson was struck off and ordered to pay the SRA’s £33,000 costs.

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