A solicitor of more than half a century who let his firm’s accounts go unchecked for years has been suspended from practice.
John Cruickshank, who was sole practitioner with Leicestershire firm Geoffrey Hill & Co, handled the finances so badly that investigators found a discrepancy of almost £600,000 between client liabilities and the total amount in the client account.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority intervened into the practice in October 2024 and ended up paying more than £400,000 to former clients following 31 claims on the compensation fund.
Cruickshank agreed with the SRA that he should be suspended for nine months and would pay £7,726 costs. His sanction was approved by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal following a one-day hearing last month.
Cruickshank was admitted as a solicitor in September 1970 and had been sole practitioner since 2002. The SRA started its investigation following an anonymous report concerning the condition of the firm’s accounts.
No compliant three-way client account reconciliations had been undertaken for more than two years and client ledgers were handwritten, incomplete and out of date.
The solicitor brought in an auditing firm to bring the books up to date and prepare outstanding accountants’ reports, but it reported back that books had not been updated for several years and the task of reconstructing records was ‘almost impossible’. The auditing firm found numerous compliance breaches, many inaccuracies and financial records that were ‘beyond practical remedy’.
Cruickshank admitted failing to maintain proper and compliant books, failing to carry out regular and compliant client account reconciliations, failing to maintain accurate client ledgers and failing to safeguard client money.
He had told investigators he was ‘ashamed’ of the position he got himself into and said that due to ill health he had let records get out of line.
The SRA noted Cruickshank had no previous disciplinary findings during a long and unblemished career. The regulator also took account of his age and recognised he had suffered ill health during the relevant period.
