SRA: Improper use of client account
The senior partner of a London law firm has been rebuked for using its client account as a banking facility to deal with a personal matter.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said that Timothy David Lewis Eppel, who qualified in 1975, was the owner and senior partner of McFaddens.
He was initially instructed by Client A in August 2017 to advise her in respect of a loan facility agreement, where Person B was the borrower.
Client A paid £47,480 into the firm’s client account in December 2018. On the same date, a further £4,020 was received from a company owned by Mr Eppel against Client A’s ledger.
The money was then sent to an unrelated company in respect of a personal matter relating to Mr Eppel. Mr Eppel said all the money was owed to McFaddens in fees.
“However, the single payment made from Client A’s ledger of the firm’s client account was not connected to the legal transaction in respect of which Mr Eppel was instructed,” the SRA said.
Mr Eppel accepted that the client account should not have been used for this purpose. “The correct approach would have been for the firm’s fees to have been transferred into the firm’s office account and any monies owed to Mr Eppel to have been paid to him from the office account. Mr Eppel’s own money should not have placed into the client account for expediency.”
The SRA said a rebuke was “the appropriate outcome” because it was a single transaction dating back to 2018 and the conduct has not been repeated.
“Whilst the use of the client account to process Mr Eppel’s own money was improper, there was no misuse of client money and there has been no harm to clients or third parties,” it went on.