A head of finance cited as one of the reasons for shutting down his firm has been barred from the profession.
Jeff Hazelgrove, formerly with Buckinghamshire firm Hunter’s Solicitors LLP, was found to have authorised and made transfers from the client account to the office account. These payments were made to ensure the firm met its liabilities and in circumstances where they could not be justified.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority said Hazelgrove’s actions were dishonest and ordered that he be presented from working for any regulated firm without securing permission. He was also ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA’s £600 costs.
Hazelgrove, a non-solicitor, had worked for Hunter’s from 2021 until February this year. The SRA said he made the unauthorised transfers over a nine-month period.
As well as being employed as head of finance and operations, he was also the firm’s compliance officer for finance and administration. This week the SRA announced plans to force firms of a certain size to separate compliance and management roles to prevent the chances of conflict.
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The SRA intervened into Hunter’s Solicitors LLP in March, citing Hazelgrove’s suspected dishonesty as a basis for its action. Three solicitors who managed the firm were also suspended but no proceedings have yet been brought against them.
Hunter’s used several trading names working from different offices in the south east: Batemans, Franklins, Grower Freeman, Colemans, Graham White & Co, Kealy Farmar and Stocker & Co.
The regulator’s action came amid a flurry of accumulator firms – which have grown quickly through a series of small acquisitions – and concern about the risks some of these businesses pose.
The SRA met with some of these rapidly-expanding firms last year and in December reported that there appeared to be a link between rushed or opportunistic approaches, where minimal due diligence was undertaken, and the subsequent problems these businesses faced.
