And he’s been struck off as a result
A solicitor has been struck off after inventing a training contract and offering it to a long-term friend.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) found that the solicitor offered Person A, an unnamed woman, a training contract after telling her that he was a director at the firm.
In reality, not only was the solicitor not a director (rather he was a lowly associate), but the firm neither offered, nor intended to offer, any training contracts.
The web of lies spun by the now ex-solicitor were documented in a series of text exchanges between himself and Person A totalling 379 messages. These included references to his position as a director, the existence of the training contract, person A’s offer of the position, and even start dates and seat rotations.
Elsewhere in the conversations, the solicitor went as far as to say that work colleagues referred to him as “babyface”, because he was the youngest partner at the firm.
The web unravelled when Person A directly contacted the firm after discovering that the solicitor had lied about other aspects of his life, including previous employments and his marriage.
Whilst the solicitor defended his actions by claiming that the texts were fabricated and manipulated by Person A, the SDT found his version of events problematic, stating that his account was “incoherent, implausible, and fanciful”.
The tribunal also found that he had been dishonest in improperly withdrawing a sum of money from a client account as a trainee at another firm, and had lied to his new firm about his employment history.
In addition to being struck off, the solicitor was ordered to pay £17,489 in costs.
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