A brother and sister team of solicitors were rightly struck off over their role in a scheme involving investments in parking spaces and storage pods, the High Court has ruled. In Margaret Hetherington & Anor v Solicitors Regulation Authority, Mrs Justice Lang DBE agreed that Margaret Bridget Hetherington and Patrick Clement Hetherington acted dishonestly by failing to advise clients of the risks in the investments. 

The siblings, co-owners of Merseyside firm Hetherington Partnership, were struck off in 2021 after a week-long hearing at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that their 'deliberate, calculated and repeated' conduct 'was a complete departure from the standards of integrity, probity and trustworthiness expected of solcitors.' The tribunal also imposed a £98,000 costs order.

They appealed on three grounds, including that the tribunal's finding of dishonesty 'ignored the high inherent probability of such conduct', and that it erred in finding that failures of advice amounted to misconduct and in finding that the solicitors were in a position of own-interest conflict.

Dismissing the appeal, Lang noted that the burden of proof on appellants is to show that the tribunal's conclusions were wrong and its decision was one that no reasonable judge could have reached. 'In this case, the criticisms advanced by the appellants did not reach this high threshold,' the judge said. She ruled that the tribunal was entitled on the evidence to conclude that the [Hetheringtons] 'deliberately failed to provide clients with proper advice so as to preserve the income generated from the schemes.' It was proper for the tribunal to characterise this as own-interest conflict. 

The judge recorded her appreciation of the assistance given by counsel for the appellants, Gregory Treverton-Jones KC, 'who said everything that could be said on behalf of the appellants, in a challenging case'.