Marilyn Susan Nicolas

Admitted 1979Application 8025/1999Hearing, 9 March 2000;reasons, 25 April 2000

The SDT made an order on 9 March 2000 prohibiting the respondent, of Penduckshaw, Rabies Heath Road, Bletchingly, Surrey RH1 4NB, who had practised on her own account but who later had voluntarily sought to have her name removed from the Roll, from having her name restored to the Roll except by order of the SDT, having found that she had been guilty of unbefitting conduct, in that she had failed to disclose material information to clients; she had failed to act in accordance with client instructions; she had submitted to clients reports on title which were false and misleading; and she had acted in breach of r.1(a), (c), (d) and (e) of the Solicitors Practice Rules 1990 in the course of conveyancing transactions.

In December 1989, the SDT had imposed a penalty of 1,500 on the respondent for breaches of s.34 of the Solicitors Act 1974 and the accounts rules, and unbefitting conduct (decision 4480 [1990] (see [2000] Gazette, 21 February, 45); and in August 1995 it had imposed a penalty of 2,000 on her for unbefitting conduct (application 6783/1994 [1996] (see [2000] Gazette, 17 January, 30).

The SDT expressed sympathy with the predicament in which the respondent found herself in March 2000, but an order of prohibition was clearly right.

The volume of paperwork accompanying the application had been more than had been strictly necessary and, in view of that fact and the respondent's financial situation, the tribunal ordered her to pay a fixed contribution (1,500) towards the costs.