A Kings Lynn firm has been fined £12,366 and ordered to pay costs of £1,452 for client account breaches relating to the administration of an estate.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority fined Hawkins Ryan LLP for transferring £23,348.50 from its client account to its office account between June 2022 and December 2023 for work pertaining to an estate after it received confirmation it was not instructed to administer the estate and without notifying the administrator.
And between May 2022 and December 2023, the firm transferred £31,718.50 from the client account to the office account without providing a bill of costs or other written notification of the costs to estate or its beneficiaries before doing so.
The SRA’s investigation also found that the firm continued to hold monies in respect of the estate when there was no reason to do so, and had failed to account for £271.25 interest that had been accrued relating to the estate.
The estate had experienced delays and incurred increased costs because the firm had not provided relevant information in response to “numerous requests” from administrators, the SRA added.
The allegations were treated as “inherently more serious”, the SRA said, as they related to client money.
“The firm should also have known that it could not transfer funds to pay invoices which it had not properly delivered, and for work it had not been instructed to do.
“Its lack of judgment in transferring funds to pay those invoices, without the agreement of the beneficial owner of those funds, was of serious concern.”
The SRA accepted there were no allegations of dishonesty, lack of integrity or recklessness, and said the firm had engaged with the investigation fully.
