Barry Roger Howard

• Application 10270-2009
• Admitted 1982
• Hearing 16 February 2010
• Reasons 21 May 2010

The SDT ordered that the respondent, of Howard & Company, 43 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8AE, solicitor, do pay a fine of £4,000.

The respondent had failed to comply in full with a direction under section 44B of the Solicitors Act 1974 made on 18 May 2007; he had acted in breach of the Solicitors Separate Business Code 1994; and/or he had done something in the course of practising as a solicitor which had compromised or impaired or had been likely to compromise or impair his independence or integrity and/or his good repute or that of the solicitors’ profession, contrary to the Solicitors Practice Rules 1990.
The SDT accepted that the respondent and his wife together had suffered the illness of three of their parents and bereavement within a relevant short period of time. The respondent had not thought things through with a proper degree of objectivity and had not sought advice when it would have been prudent to do so. The tribunal accepted the respondent’s evidence that he had not deliberately misled the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The SDT accepted that he had been mistaken, having seen and heard him give evidence. The SDT also took into account the fact that he had sought to put matters right of his own volition during the course of correspondence, to go to his credit. When considering the sanction to be imposed, the SDT accepted that the allegations found to have been substantiated were not in the particular circumstances of the case at the most serious end of the scale, but it could not ignore the fact that the failure on the part of a solicitor to comply fully with his profession’s regulatory requirements, which were in place in order to protect the public, was serious, and a financial penalty was appropriate in order to ensure that the good reputation of the solicitors profession be maintained.

The respondent was ordered to pay costs of £12,000.