BSB: conduct “incompatible with membership of the Bar”
A barrister turned solicitor has been disbarred 10 years after he was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).
Lloyd Aneke was called in 1987, and qualified as a solicitor in 1997, before being struck off in 2006. He applied to be restored to the roll last year, but was refused.
Disbarring and reprimanding Mr Aneke this month, a Bar disciplinary tribunal found that he had “engaged in conduct which was discreditable to a barrister”, having “engaged in conduct unbefitting a solicitor, including reckless and improper stewardship of client money” for which he was struck off.
The tribunal said this conduct was also “likely to diminish the public confidence in the legal profession or otherwise bring the profession into dispute”.
Further, he had “failed to report promptly (or at all) to the Bar Council that he had been convicted of a disciplinary offence by another professional body”.
Mr Aneke, who does not hold a practising certificate, was disbarred and reprimanded, although the decision is open to appeal.
A spokeswoman for the Bar Standards Board (BSB) said that at his SDT hearing last year, Mr Aneke admitted not reporting his striking off in 2006 to the Bar Council or the BSB and that after the hearing the Solicitors Regulation Authority alerted the BSB.
“Mr Aneke’s conduct and subsequent strike-off from the roll of solicitors is incompatible with membership of the Bar and the tribunal’s decision to disbar him reflects this,” she added.
The first SDT in 2006 said that Mr Aneke had admitted breaches of the Accounts Rules, and utilising client funds “for the benefit of other clients” and “for his own purpose”.
He had also admitted two further offences of failing to check the provenance of “substantial sums of money paid into his client bank account” and failing to check evidence of a client’s identity in breach of the Money Laundering Regulations 2003.
However, the one charge which was not admitted and the SDT found was not proved was that he acted dishonestly. However, it said his accounting standards were “totally unacceptable” and his “flaunting of the rules” had led to a shortage on client account which led to claims on the Compensation Fund.
Refusing the application for restoration to the roll, the SDT said last year that Mr Aneke’s was a “hopeless application”. It said: “The public would find it intolerable for the applicant to be readmitted particularly in the light of the complete absence of any rehabilitation since he had been struck off.
“It would be horrified to learn that having been struck off and made bankrupt in respect of the losses which his misconduct had caused, and having made no endeavour to put it right, he had meanwhile practised as a barrister in Nigeria without informing the Bar regulator either there or in England and Wales of what had happened.”
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