The Solicitors Regulation Authority has shut down another multi-office firm and suspended three of its solicitors.
The regulator announced today it had intervened into Buckinghamshire-based firm Hunter’s Solicitors LLP because of the suspected dishonesty of employee Jeff Hazelgrove, who was the firm’s compliance officer for finance and administration.
Solicitors Angelo Luiz-Barrea, Christopher Stocker and Howard Rind have all been made subject to intervention on the basis they allegedly failed to comply with SRA rules, although there is no suggestion they were in any way dishonest.
Midlands firm Shakespeare Martineau has been appointed as intervening agent and has begun to contact clients of Hunter’s.
Hunter’s Solicitors LLP had its head office in High Wycombe but also operated from nine other offices across Essex, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire under different trading names.
According to accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025, the business employed 42 people and had net assets of £224,000. In a regulatory settlement agreement reached with the SRA last April, the multi-disciplinary firm was fined almost £25,000 for breaches of anti-money laundering regulations.
