A legal assistant who took £4,300 from clients has been barred from working in the sector without the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s permission.
Emma Beck worked at Bradford firm MIR Legal Limited as a legal assistant from September 2018 to ‘sometime in 2022’, the SRA said. Between December 2019 and December 2021, Beck ‘took receipt of cash payments from clients on behalf of the firm, totalling £4,300, which she did not account for in accordance with the firm’s procedures’.
The firm dismissed Beck following an investigation into gross misconduct relating to the missing client funds.
After her dismissal, she failed to return a laptop and printer which had been provided to her by the firm during the course of her employment.
Beck was issued with a Section 43 order. Her conduct meant ‘it was undesirable for her to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior approval’.
Section 43 restrictions mean Beck cannot be employed or remunerated by a solicitor or recognised body without the SRA’s prior written permission.
She was also ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £600.
