A former owner of a South-East law firm has been struck off the roll after acting dishonestly by providing 33 false and misleading Will documents.
The law firm employer had asked staff repeatedly to falsely testify they had witnessed Wills being signed when in fact they had never been in the room at the time.
Robert Ian Cartmell, formerly managing director with Buckinghamshire firm Cartmell & Co had been found to have acted dishonestly in presenting misleading documents 33 times over a period of 2 years by The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
It had transpired that a legal secretary had signed a number of documents as a witness to the signature of the client, even though she was never present in the room. The secretary was told by Cartmell, who was admitted in 1996, to add her signature to deeds and Wills that had been signed by the client outside the office – he had even got a trainee solicitor of the firm to do the exact same thing.
The tribunal said Cartmell had been motivated to ‘cut corners’ in the mistaken belief he had been helping clients. ‘In doing so he had breached his client’s trust to the extent that the documents were potentially invalid,’ it added.
Cartmell, who was suspended in 2018 and left the firm at the end of that year, admitted that he had asked his staff to witness signatures even when they had not been physically present in the room. He agreed this had become ‘a bit of a habit’ but denied it was regular practice as confirmed most documents were signed correctly.
He was well aware of the fact that he required two witnesses, so explained to his clients that he would get his secretary to sign as if it had taken place in the office. He confirmed at the tribunal it was his intention to help the clients, not deceive them, and he maintained the documents were ‘ostensibly valid’ as they fully reflected the client’s wishes.
In conclusion, the tribunal found he had acting dishonestly in his profession as he knew the documents were misleading but still carried on presenting them as valid.
