A law firm employee who misappropriated more than £330,000 from her firm through fraudulent stamp duty land tax declarations can no longer work in the profession without prior permission from the regulator.

Sarah Tyler, a former employee of Cardiff firm Hek Jones Limited, is now under a section 43 order following an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Between October 15, 2020 and 26 November, 2021, Tyler misappropriated ‘at least’ £338,000 from the firm she worked at by making statements to HMRC and the Welsh Revenue Authority which undervalued property prices or wrongly classified the properly transaction.

Tyler sent clients completion statements recording the correct amount of tax payable, which would be received into the client account. Tyler would then input an incorrect amount when submitting the online tax return, creating a leftover excess.

Tyler then instructed the firm’s accounts departments to make payments to different third parties, known personally to her. She would then contact the third party and claim there had been a payment made in error to them and ask that they send it 'back to the firm' - in reality to her own bank account.

The SRA said Tyler also failed to make payments of disbursements on several conveyancing transactions.

Hek Jones, based in Cardiff, discovered Tyler's fraud during a review of letters from HMRC and WRA. Tyler was dismissed following the firm’s subsequent investigation and the matter was reported to the SRA.

A section 43 order was considered appropriate by the SRA as Tyler is not a solicitor and her conduct ‘makes it undesirable for her to be involved in a legal practice because her conduct was dishonest'.

The SRA accepted Tyler’s admissions that she misappropriated at least £338,000 from her firm; that her conduct means her involvement in a legal practice is ‘undesirable’ and that her conduct was dishonest.

Under the section 43 order, Tyler cannot be employed by a solicitor, practice, or recognised body without the SRA’s prior permission.

Tyler, who apologised to the firm and ‘expressed regret and remorse for her actions,’ has agreed to pay the costs of the SRA’s investigation in the sum of £3,150.