The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far paid out more than £9m to former clients of Cheshire firm Wolstenholmes.

The SRA closed down the firm, which had offices in Cheadle and Birmingham, last year, on the grounds of suspected dishonesty and breaches of the solicitors’ accountancy rules.

An SRA spokesman confirmed it had paid out £9.4m from the solicitors’ compensation fund to the firm’s former clients, after investigating more than 550 applications. However, he was unwilling to speculate over what the final figure would be.

Five solicitors at the firm – Imran Hussain, Helen Murgatroyd, Bobby Shabbir, Bilal Khawaja and Nasser Ilyas, had their practising certificates suspended in December. Since then Khawaja, Hussain and Shabbir have been allowed to practise, subject to certain conditions.