The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued penalties to two firms and one individual for breaching client account regulations.
Solicitor Jay Allan Tooker was fined £24,862, Charsley Harrison LLP was fined £18,552 and Hawkins Ryan LLP was fined £12,366, with all ordered to pay costs of over £1,300.
Tooker, a partner at Holman Fenwick Willan LLP in London until his retirement in March this year, authorised 22 payments from the firm’s client account between March and December 2021 which were not related to the delivery of regulated legal services.
An internal audit at the firm found the payments had been made to cover the salaries of a client, along with management fees, storage fees and insurance payments. Mr Tooker accepted he had authorised the payments and that they were not “ancillary to or a necessary constituent element of” regulated legal services provided to the client.
The SRA said Tooker had shown “a disregard for his regulatory obligations to exercise proper management over client account money. The lack of control and proper oversight of the client account led to the account being repeatedly used to provide banking facilities.”
The matter was considered serious as it took place over a period of nine months and formed a pattern of conduct. However the SRA acknowledged that there had been no financial gain or any other benefit as a result of the conduct, and noted Tooker’s unblemished regulatory history since being admitted to the roll of solicitors in 1989.
“He has shown genuine insight into the failings which occurred and has experessed regret that the breaches occurred”, the decision noted.
A forensic investigation by the SRA into Windsor-based Charsley Harrison LLP resulted in three breaches related to the late preparation and delivery of accountants’ reports and dormant balances in the firm’s client account.
Between July 2019 and August 2025, the SRA found the firm had allowed client funds of approximately £113,560.32 to accumulate in the client account without valid reason, with some balances dating back to 2019.
“This demonstrated a persistent failure to comply with rule 2.5 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2019, which requires firms to return client money promptly”, the SRA said.
“Although the firm took steps to address the dormant balances the conduct continued after it was known to be improper.”
The firm was also found to have failed to obtain or deliver accountants’ reports and deliver qualified reports over five consecutive years.
Hawkins Ryan LLP, based in Kings Lynn, was fined 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 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.
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 the firm had engaged with the investigation fully.
