A former law employee who faked signatures on a property document has said that she panicked because the matter was urgent.
Gemma Stanton admitted that she traced the signatures of clients and a fee earner at her firm to make it look as if the form had been properly completed.
Stanton, a post completion assistant at Lancashire firm KJD law, was made subject to a Solicitors Regulation Authority order barring her from working for any other firm without the regulator’s permission.
The non-solicitor had been in post for around 10 months when her firm was instructed to deal with the sale of a property with two parcels of land. The client signed one transfer form (TR1) but due to an oversight they were not asked to sign the second required form.
Following completion, the buyer’s solicitor requested the signed second TR1 and Stanton was asked by the fee earner to send it to the client to sign. She emailed the second TR1 purportedly signed by the clients to the buyer’s solicitor.
The fee earner noticed the two signatures on each form differed slightly. Stanton was questioned and admitted to tracing the signatures. She was suspended on the same day and dismissed two weeks later.
Stanton accepted her conduct was dishonest and that she should not be involved in a legal practice. She told the SRA she had panicked as the matter was urgent and she should have asked for help on what to do. Her conduct caused no actual harm as the fabricated document was withdrawn the same day.
