Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal strikes off former coroner
A former coroner has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after he took almost £2m from his clients.
Alan Crickmore, a solicitor who was coroner for Gloucestershire, is currently serving an eight-year sentence for the fraud.
In addition to striking him off, the Tribunal ordered Crickmore to pay £66,000 in costs.
The SDT found that he had mis-appropriated clients' funds and used them for his own benefit, withdrew and/or transferred monies from the client bank account other than as permitted, and took unfair advantage of a client.
The Tribunal also concluded that Crickmore failed to ensure compliance with the Solicitors' Accounts Rules, and failed to keep accounts properly written up.
JC Chesterton, the chair of the panel that heard the case, said: "This Tribunal rarely sees such conscious impropriety on such a scale over such a sustained period of time. It was undertaken by an experienced solicitor who held a judicial appointment and was a solicitor trustee and attorney.
“The damage to the reputation of the profession in the eyes of the public is grave. The public have the right to trust a solicitor to the ends of the earth. The public need to know that when there is a case such as this both the criminal law and this Tribunal will deal with the solicitor appropriately, and that the solicitors’ profession in general will make good the loss to victims insofar as the solicitor himself does not.”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which prosecuted the case, has paid out more than £250,000 from the Solicitors Compensation Fund to those who have suffered hardship as a result of Crickmore’s actions.
Gordon Ramsay, its Director of Legal Enforcement, said: "Mr Crickmore was put in a position of trust where he was supposed to protect the assets and interests of vulnerable clients, including money left in wills. He abused that trust, for his own personal gain, and today we've ensured he'll never be able to practice as a solicitor."