A solicitor who had been in practice for more than 50 years has agreed to end his career after accepting he twice acted dishonestly.
Malcolm Mackillop, sole principal of Buckinghamshire firm Archdeacon Russell & Co, was already under investigation for backdating a document when he denied on an indemnity insurance application that he was subject to any Solicitors Regulation Authority action.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said the two matters, which happened some 15 months apart, showed that Mackillop’s misconduct was not an isolated incident or momentary lapse of judgement.
The tribunal had heard that Mackillop, who qualified as a solicitor in 1975, had been handling a conveyancing transaction on behalf of the buyer and their mortgage lender Santander.
Despite not securing the mortgage funds, Mackillop completed the purchase in October 2021: two months later he wrote to Santander saying that completion was scheduled to take place in December 2021 and requested the mortgage funds. The letter enclosed a certificate of title which Mackillop had altered to show the later completion date.
After a sale of the firm had collapsed, Mackillop applied in April 2023 to renew his professional indemnity insurance. Asked whether the firm had been the subject of a visit or enquiry from the SRA, he had answered ‘no’, when three months earlier he had been notified of an investigation being underway.
He later told the SRA’s investigators that he had been in a rush and a panic to arrange PII as quickly as possible after being unable to sell his practice.
Mackillop and the SRA agreed on the outcome that he should be struck off after he admitted the allegations of dishonesty. In mitigation which was not agreed, the solicitor said he had enjoyed an unblemished 50-year career that pointed out that the outcome would effectively end a firm with 75 years of service to the community.
On the mortgage matter, he blamed a fax machine which had failed to deliver a request for an advance. He said the PII application misconduct arose from a misunderstanding about the SRA’s intentions.
Mackillop was struck off and ordered to pay almost £15,000 costs.
