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A solicitor who secretly kept a client “off the books” and siphoned thousands of dollars in legal fees into his personal bank account has been struck off the roll.
A UK criminal defence solicitor has been struck off after secretly diverting thousands of dollars in client legal fees into his personal bank account before later attempting to dismiss the conduct as a simple mistake.
Mandeep Sunny Singh Thandi, director at Kenneth M Barrow & Co in England, admitted to receiving £5,510 (over $10,000) from a client in a series of payments spanning 13 November 2023 to 14 February 2024.
Rather than following the firm’s standard onboarding procedures by opening a file and recording the matter in its financial and practice management systems, Thandi kept the case entirely off the firm’s books and arranged for the client’s payments to be deposited directly into his personal bank account through four separate transactions.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) heard that the client had initially requested the firm’s bank details to pay the fees, but Thandi instead provided the details of his personal account.
Over that four-month period, the client made four payments that steadily increased in size, starting at £10, rising to £1,000, then £2,000, and culminating in a final payment of £2,500.
In an effort to cover his tracks, Thandi went so far as to pay £1,200 (over $2,250) to the client’s counsel from his own bank account in February 2024, before keeping the remaining £4,310 (over $8,000) of the client’s money.
The arrangement began to unravel only after the client engaged a new solicitor, who contacted the firm’s owner after discovering that the payments had been directed into Thandi’s personal account rather than the firm’s trust account.
When questioned by the firm’s owner, Thandi “disingenuously claimed” that he had provided his personal bank details by mistake, describing it as an “error” on his part.
His explanation failed to satisfy the firm.
Thandi was suspended later that day and resigned just five days later.
The tribunal heard that the law firm ultimately refunded the full £5,510 to the client and recovered the amount by deducting it from money owed to Thandi under a consultancy agreement.
In mitigation, although the submissions were not accepted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Thandi said he had maintained a “clean regulatory record” with no previous disciplinary findings.
He also outlined that he was experiencing “significant personal difficulties” at the time and argued that the incident was an “isolated episode of misconduct”.
In a damning assessment, the tribunal found that Thandi’s conduct was “deliberate” and that he made “no attempt to remedy the position”, adding that “ordinary and decent people” would view his behaviour as dishonest.
“His explanation that he had given his personal account detailed in error was only provided after a complaint was made to the firm about the payments into Mr Thandi’s personal account,” the tribunal said.
“The tribunal was satisfied Mr Thandi knew that the monies had been paid into his account, and he knew that they should have been paid to the firm and had chosen not to do so. Ordinary and decent people would consider Mr Thandi’s conduct to be dishonest.”
Having reached those findings, the tribunal concluded that striking Thandi from the roll of solicitors was “the only appropriate and proportionate sanction”.
He was also ordered to pay a fixed sum of £23,085 (over $43,000).
