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To anonymous at 12:51, of course you can remain on the roll if convicted of a serious offence and imprisoned, and there is precedent for it. By that I mean the dreadful Sally Clark case, an innocent woman Solicitor who was wrongly convicted of killing her own children In the mid-1990s and imprisoned (two life sentences), and yet from memory she was suspended indefinitely and was not struck off.

While ultimately acquitted, she was utterly destroyed by what had happened to her, and died in 2007.

Those of us who remember the case may well recall wondering at the time why she was not struck off, the general consensus concluding that there must be more to this case than was revealed.

Bravo the Tribunal at that time for getting it right, but inevitably it does beg the question quite where to set the bar.

Applying Sir Brian Leveson's Test to her case, doubtless she would have been struck off, and what chance I wonder would she have had of being reinstated to the roll, notwithstanding eventually being acquitted.

The same I have to say is true of Mr Farrimond, albeit that he clearly committed the crime whereas Sally Clark was completely innocent. Despite Sir Brian's comments, I suspect that his chances of reinstatement to the roll in due course are zero.