Gregory John Hine
Thursday 08 July 2010
- Application 10314-2009
- Admitted 1985
- Hearing 4 March 2010
- Reasons 4 June 2010
The SDT ordered that the respondent, of Romsey SO51, should be reprimanded. The respondent had failed to deliver an accountant’s report for the year ending 30 November 2005, as required by section 34 of the Solicitors Act 1974 and the rules made thereunder; and he had failed to keep books of account properly written up for the purposes of rule 32 of the Solicitors Accounts Rules 1998.
The SDT accepted the respondent’s explanations as to the unfortunate chain of events, starting with his illness and culminating in his bankruptcy. The SDT took the view that because of the circumstances of the bankruptcy and the difficulties with his bank relating to his client account, the respondent had largely been unable to deal with the shortcomings in his accounts. The SDT noted the shortfall but accepted that but for the unfortunate chain of events, the inadequacies in his day-to-day bookkeeping over a period from November 2005 could have been resolved. The SDT considered that the circumstances of the matter were exceptional and that in those particular circumstances the respondent had done as much as he could to try to resolve matters.
The respondent was ordered to pay costs of £1,850.
