A solicitor who took thousands of pounds in cash payments from clients and dishonestly failed to declare them to his firm has been struck off.

A Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing was told that Andrew John Peters, who had been employed by Hertfordshire firm Martin Smith & Co, had a self-confessed drink problem and had admitted he “didn’t know what he was doing most of the time”.

It emerged that clients had made cash payments that were not properly recorded or banked. After this conduct was discovered, he was dismissed in November 2016.

The tribunal determined that the solicitor “knew he was retaining money that belonged either to the firm, or to clients of the firm, and he was using it for his own purposes.”

It found all the allegations against him proven, including that of dishonesty

His motivation had been “to obtain money from clients and his firm for his own personal use”.

(Source – Legal Futures website)