Rhodd Llwyd Humphreys has been struck off the roll by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and ordered to pay costs of £2,500 after admitting to lying to clients for four years.
After being accused by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in 2002 of making untrue statements to her clients and third parties, Humphreys admitted these allegations were true, including that her conduct was dishonest.
It was alleged that whilst working at a firm in Cheshire, Humphreys told the beneficiary of an estate that she had written to the National Savings and Investments (NSI) for a statements and that she would forward the document on when she received it. However, the truth was to the contrary. In reality, no investment was with the NSI and as such no statement had been requested.
The tribunal also heard that Humphreys had acted similarly whilst working at a firm in Wrexham, telling a client that a grant of probate had been obtained when she knew it hadn’t. This resulted in other untruths being told over the coming months. In this case, six months later, Humphreys told her clients that the probate document had been sent to a wealth management firm, when she knew probate had not even been obtained.
The judgement said:
“Given the serious nature of the respondent’s misconduct, in that it involved admitted dishonesty, the tribunal considered the only appropriate and proportional sanction was to strike the respondent of the roll of solicitors.”
