A solicitor who backdated a document to make it appear it had been posted months before has been struck off the roll.
Syed Sibtain, a solicitor since April 2016, sent an email to opposing solicitors in October 2023 purporting to contain a copy of the original acknowledgement of service letter dated from July.
The opposing solicitors noted that the document properties showed it had been created in October 2023 and brought this to the attention of Sibtain’s firm, Midlands firm Thursfields (since acquired by Knights).
Sibtain initially told an internal investigation that issues with his laptop could have led to the discrepancy. He said the document had been created in July and then saved on his desktop only, rather than the firm’s database. He opened it again in October which was how he believed the metadata showed that it was created then.
Sibtain later changed his account after he could not locate an electronic copy of the letter he claimed to have sent in July. This time, he claimed to have sent a recreated version of what he believed he had sent, which was purely for the opposing firm’s records.
He had not told the firm that the original could not be located and that he was sending a ‘recreation’.
Sibtain subsequently confirmed to the Solicitors Regulation Authority that he backdated the letter and tried to mislead his employer because he was afraid he would lose his job.
Before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last month, it was heard that Sibtain and the SRA had agreed an outcome that he be struck off. Sibtain, who turns 41 this month, said in non-agreed mitigation that he had been struggling to reach billing targets and when he realised his error in not sending the letter when he should have, he was afraid to admit what had happened through fear of losing his job when his wife was due to give birth to his fourth child in two months.
He was struck off and ordered to pay £5,000 costs.
