A solicitor who failed to complete a Firm Closure Notification (FCN) after being repeatedly contacted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has been suspended from practice for two years.
A Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) fined Grenville Royston Young £20,000, ordered him to pay the SRA costs of £11,940 and banned him from practising for 24 months from 30th April 2026.
Young, who was a sole practitioner based in Portsmouth from 1996, told the SRA in October 2019 he intended to close his firm on 31st March 2020 and become a freelance solicitor.
He failed to subsequently send an FCN, however, and ignored repeated requests from the SRA to do so over the following two years.
When Young finally submitted his FCN to the SRA in March 2022, it revealed he had held £17,865 in his client accounts, including £3,000 of residual balances, and held two live client files and 50 wills or deeds.
Young claimed to have intended to return one file to a client and intended to act as a freelancer for the other. However, Young had not paid for run-off cover.
Young wrote a letter to the SRA in March 2022 stating that the firm’s closed files and any files generated from working as a freelance solicitor were being stored in a self-storage unit in Portsmouth until they could be shredded.
The SRA wrote to Young in May 2022 asking why the firm continued to hold live client files and funds two years after the firm had closed. Young did not respond to the SRA’s letters.
Earlier, after receiving phone calls from the SRA, Young had told the SRA he would respond only to letters.
In August 2022, Young wrote to the SRA stating that because of serious ill-health, an operation and Covid, he would not be renewing his practising certificate. He said he would respond to the SRA’s requests when he was better.
During the SDT hearing in April, Young was accused by the SRA of failing to cooperate with its investigations between 2019 and 2023.
The tribunal took place in Young’s absence and he was not legally represented during the process.
At the hearing it was noted that Young’s correspondence provided a “clear indication” he had knowledge of the hearing and was served with relevant documents, but that he had “not engaged in the proceedings or contacted the SRA or the Tribunal”.
The SDT noted the serious medical conditions Young had referred to in 2022, but said no evidence of those conditions had been provided to the court.
During the tribunal, the SRA noted that in April 2023 Young withdrew hundreds of pounds of money from the firm’s bank account and used the business debit card to pay for shopping at Morrisons.
The SRA told the SDT that Young “flagrantly prioritised his own interests over those of his clients.”
The tribunal ruled both the allegations of failing to complete an FCN and holding client files and money were proved, with aggravating factors.
In his judgment, H Hasan wrote: “Mr Young’s conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated as two years passed before he filed the FCN. He failed to deal with outstanding issues which resulted in the intervention.”
“The immediate suspension reflected a conclusion that Mr Young’s conduct was objectively wrong, professionally inadequate, and deserving of one of the most severe sanctions available to the tribunal.”
