A compliance officer who tried to hide that he was not working in the office has been barred from the profession.
Dylan Patel, a non-solicitor, had been required by international firm Stephenson Harwood to come into the London office last November.
According to a Solicitors Regulation Authority decision notice, Patel did not attend and then spent the next week trying to cover up his absence. He told one colleague he was on a different floor and suggested he was too busy to meet her. Then he misled colleagues in two investigatory meetings when he tried to claim he had been present.
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Patel insisted he had been let into the building by a security guard after he forgot his staff pass, even providing a description of the guard, detailed timings of his arrival and departure and details of where he had been sitting throughout the day. The SRA said this account was dishonest.
Patel, from Harrow, was dismissed by the firm last December for gross misconduct. He was made subject to a section 43 notice, preventing him from working for any law firm without getting the SRA’s permission.
