Mr STEPHEN HORNE formerly of RINGLEY CHARTERED SURVEYORS TRADING AS RINGLEY LEGAL SERVICES
REGULATORY SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
1. Mr Stephen Horne being a former employee of Ringley Chartered Surveyors trading as Ringley Legal Services agrees to the following outcome of the investigation into his professional conduct under reference REG/46612-2010.
Background
2. Mr Horne is a solicitor who was employed by Ringley Chartered Surveyors, a firm of chartered surveyors based in London. As an employee of Ringley Chartered Surveyors, Mr Horne was permitted to carry out paid legal work on behalf of Ringley Chartered Surveyors directly (where Ringley Chartered Surveyors were in effect his "client") or in the limited circumstances set out in Rule 13 Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007.
3. The SRA received information that Mr Horne had been providing paid legal services to clients of Ringley Chartered Surveyors. This information was subsequently confirmed by Mr Horne to be correct in correspondence with the SRA.
4. Under the current regulatory regime there is no scope for an employed solicitor to provide paid legal services to members of the public or private clients, unless that client has a formal link to his employer, for example it is a subsidiary company. Documentation provided by Ringley Chartered Surveyors and Mr Horne showed that Mr Horne had acted for clients of Ringley Chartered Surveyors who did not have any formal link with Ringley Chartered Surveyors.
5. The SRA also became aware that, during the course of his employment, Mr Horne had been handling client monies in relation to clients of Ringley Chartered Surveyors. Mr Horne did not conduct monthly reconciliations of the client account and Ringley Chartered Surveyors did not file an annual Accountants Report as required by the Solicitors Accounts Rule 1998. However it is noted that Ringley Chartered Accountants were subject to their own rules of professional conduct concerning the handling of client monies.
6. Mr Horne left the employment of Ringley Chartered Surveyors on April 26 2010. It is understood that Ringley Chartered Surveyors do not intend to replace Mr Horne as they are now aware that to replace him in the same capacity would mean that his replacement would be acting in breach of the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007.
Findings
7. Mr Horne makes, and the SRA accepts, the following admissions:
7.1. Mr Horne has practiced as an employed solicitor and provided legal services to clients in circumstances when he was not entitled to do so contrary to Rules 12 and 13 Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007;
7.2. Mr Horne has acted in breach of Rules 4 and 32 Solicitors Accounts Rules 1998 (SAR) as he was an employed solicitor bound by the SAR and did not conduct monthly reconciliations of the client account;
7.3. Mr Horne failed to submit an annual accountants report or apply for a waiver of the requirement to do so.
Undertaking
8. Mr Horne undertakes that he will:
8.1. make an application for his voluntary removal from the Roll of Solicitors within 28 days of the date of this Agreement and not make any application for restoration to the Roll of Solicitors for the next 2 years; and
8.2. disclose details of this Agreement in any future application for restoration to the Roll of Solicitors.
Responsibility for professional conduct
9. Mr Horne is severely reprimanded for the breaches identified in paragraph 7.
10. Mr Horne agrees that this outcome will be published by the SRA and that it may also be disclosed to any person on request or otherwise.
11. Mr Horne agrees to pay the costs of the investigation in the sum of £600 inclusive of VAT and disbursements within 14 days of finalisation of this agreement.
12. Mr Horne agrees that he will not act in any way inconsistent with this agreement by, for example, denying the misconduct admitted in paragraph 7 above.
13. If the undertaking referred to in paragraph 8 above or any other terms of this agreement are not complied with, or if Mr Horne acts in any way inconsistent with this agreement, Mr Horne accepts that the matter could be referred back to an Adjudicator for consideration, including referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on the original facts and allegations and on the basis that Mr Horne's failure to comply constitutes a breach of Rule 1 of the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007.
Dated this 11 day of August 2010.
Carol Westrop for the Solicitors Regulation Authority
Stephen Horne