SDT: Solicitor has now retired
A veteran solicitor who said she was wrong to continue running her firm after the death of her husband – who worked with her in the business – has been suspended for multiple accounts rule breaches.
Elizabeth Jane Radcliffe allowed improper withdrawals from client account to happen on at least four matters – in one case, the client ledger was overdrawn by £50,000 because she had forgotten she had already paid the money to the beneficiaries.
The cash shortages on client account – put at £122,000 – were all rectified and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) accepted that her actions were inadvertent rather than deliberate.
But she “repeatedly put client money at risk and demonstrated a failure to protect client money”, the regulator said in a statement of agreed facts and outcome approved by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).
“The [forensic investigator] reports show she has withdrawn money from client account when she did not hold sufficient funds on behalf of the client in question, and by doing so, used money held for other clients’ matters.”
This showed a lack of integrity, failed to uphold public trust in the profession and breached multiple rules.
Ms Radcliffe, 74, also failed maintain accurate financial records – not updating the accounts or undertaking reconciliations for two years before the firm closed – and did not co-operate with the Legal Ombudsman over complaints made about her firm or the SRA.
The solicitor, who qualified in 1976, was senior partner of Surrey firm Rowe Radcliffe from 1989 to 2018, and thereafter a sole practitioner until the SRA shut down the firm in August 2021. The breaches occurred in the latter period.
During the SRA investigation, Ms Radcliffe’s solicitors said one of the issues was “an inability to motivate and drive herself to address these often time-consuming queries which have often related to relatively small individual amounts of money”.
In mitigation, Ms Radcliffe said the breaches occurred after her cashier retired and she made an “unsatisfactory” outsourcing arrangement.
She accepted though that it was her responsibility to ensure accurate and compliant records were kept. She also said the failure to engage with the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA “was not intentional and that she had health issues at the time”.
Ms Radcliffe submitted that “her difficulties started with the illness, and subsequent death of her husband. [They] had worked together in the firm and his untimely death in November 2008 was devastating on both a personal and professional level.
“[She] advises that she thought she could continue the practice on her own but acknowledges that it is clear now that this was an error of judgement.”
The SDT said her actions “impacted upon clients in that she continued to make payments to clients without knowing whether sufficient funds were held to meet client liabilities”.
It acknowledged that Ms Radcliffe made early admissions and cited the impact of her health on her ability to operate the firm. She has now retired and not held a practicing certificate since 2022.
“The tribunal considered that the seriousness of the admitted allegations warranted a sanction greater that a reprimand or a fine, however neither the protection of the public nor the protection of the reputation of the profession required [her] to be struck off.”
The proposed year suspension was an “appropriate and proportionate sanction”, plus conditions should she return to practise that meant she could not be a sole owner or a partner in a firm, hold a compliance role, or hold client money. The SRA would also need to approve any employment as a solicitor.