Personal payments
The former head of finance at a law firm has been disqualified after it emerged she had racked up £300,000 in personal expenses on a company credit card.
MLP Law became aware of Leanne Sodergren’s actions in July 2024, after its bank flagged suspicious transactions on a company credit card she held and raised concerns about possible theft or fraud on the firm’s office account.
A subsequent investigation by the firm revealed Sodergren, who was responsible for managing and settling the firm’s credit card bills, had used the firm’s credit card to make personal payments in excess of £300,000 between 2019 and 2024.
Sodergren, who is not a solicitor, admitted to the misconduct and resigned with immediate effect.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) found her conduct dishonest and issued a disqualification order against her under section 99 of the Legal Services Act 2007.
She was also ordered to pay costs of £600.
In a statement, MLP Law said: “Whilst there are some largely immaterial omissions in the SRA report (we identified the issue alongside being alerted by the bank), over 12 months ago we discovered a potential fraud relating to firm, office account, money.”
“We immediately launched an internal investigation and resolved the matter quickly, which resulted in the termination of employment of an employee.”
“We immediately engaged our external accountants and quickly established that no client monies were affected and the firm proactively notified the police and the SRA. The firm and all employees fully supported the enquiries.”
“Whilst this is a regrettable incident, at the time business as usual continued and there was no impact upon our clients, suppliers or team; our services and business continued as usual for this past year and will continue to do so.”
“A police investigation is ongoing and we are unable to comment further.”