Solicitor's restrictions lifted following 'professional rehabilitation'

A solicitor who was not allowed to practice as a sole practitioner, partner or member of a firm has had all restrictions lifted by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after seven years.

Marco Dellapina was also unable to act as a compliance officer or hold client money.

The sanctions, which included a £3,750 fine and £10,000 order of costs, were imposed by the SDT in 2016. It found that, while as a partner and director at Diaz Dellapina Limited Dellapina had made unallocated round sum transfers; caused or permitted unallocated transactions; failed to keep accounting records properly written up and failed to carry out client bank account reconciliations every five weeks.

Dellapina applied to vary or remove the conditions on practice and though initially opposed by the SRA, the regulator supported the application following service of additional material.

The tribunal heard the conditions restricted Dellapina’s earning capacity as firms would engage him only if he was able to bring his own work. Dellapina, who is currently employed in a consultancy role at FidLaw and is based in Italy, said ‘there was no possibility of him returning to the UK to set up his own firm again’.

The SRA told the tribunal it was satisfied Dellapina ‘had provided ample evidence to support his professional rehabilitation’.

The three-person panel found Dellapina had ‘demonstrated impressive insight both at the time [of the 2016 matters] and now’. It added: ‘A key issue was the fact that the SRA now supported Mr Dellapina’s application. There had been full compliance with the conditions since their imposition and Mr Dellapina had produced evidence of the courses he had attended, together with his references.

‘The tribunal could infer that he had operated very well at a senior level in the profession. He had been involved in managing and training younger people as well as he could within the restrictions under which he was operating.’

Granting the application, the tribunal ordered that the conditions be removed from 9 March 2023. It also ordered Dellapina to pay £1,435 in costs for the SRA’s response.