A sole practitioner whose firm held onto hundreds of outstanding client balances going back as far as 1999 has been struck off the roll.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal described Shashi Patel’s management of his firm’s finances as ‘chaotic’, to the extent that he could not even confirm the extent of the client account shortfalls.
The tribunal also found Patel, admitted in 1991, acted dishonestly by wrongly stating on a professional indemnity insurance renewal form that his firm had not been subject to any investigations from the SRA in the previous 10 years.
‘Harm was a very foreseeable consequence of [Patel’s] actions and omissions and the chaotic way he operated,’ the tribunal ruling stated. ‘He had risked voiding his PII policy through non-disclosure, which would have left his clients at risk. Mr Patel had a clear disregard for rules and regulations designed to protect the reputation of the legal profession.’
Patel, 64, practised as Patel & Co in Northamptonshire until the SRA intervened to shut down the firm three years ago. The regulator started investigating the firm after it had self-reported in 2022 that it had been the victim of a vishing fraud which resulted in a total of £167,000 being improperly withdrawn from its two client accounts.
The SRA found that Patel & Co had provided incomplete client account reconciliations, with some not appropriately reviewed or signed off for several years. Where reconciliations were produced, they revealed ‘significant’ discrepancies including unexplained differences between cash book and client bank balances.
Patel failed to co-operate with the SRA, ignoring or inadequately addressing requests for information. He did not attend his own tribunal hearing.
In total, 685 client matters were found with outstanding balances and no activity for at least 12 months. In many cases these had been dormant for more than three years, and in one case since 1999.
Patel did not know what money he was holding or who it belonged to and had no idea about the extent of shortfalls at any given time. Patel told investigators that reconciliations had not been signed off for five years when this should have been completed at least every five weeks.
Patel had previously admitted negligence but denied dishonesty. The tribunal noted he was an experienced solicitor who deliberately misled the PII insurers as well as overseeing the accounts issues.
He was struck off and ordered to pay £45,337 costs.
