Top Liverpool Solicitor Rebuked Over Payments to Prisoners
A former president of Liverpool Law Society, Chris Topping, has been rebuked for allowing a client's damages to be paid to serving prisoners.
According to a Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) decision notice, Topping, a consultant with Liverpool firm Jackson Lees Group, authorised 21 separate payments totaling £37,640 to be made from the client account.
The SRA found that Topping caused or allowed his firm's client account to be used as a banking facility, breaching the SRA accounts rules and one of the SRA principles, despite warnings not to do so.
Warnings not to allow client account to be used as banking facility were ignored.
Topping's actions were deemed to be in non-compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the firm's privacy policy.
Author: John Hyde.
Summary: Solicitor rebuked for £37,000 payments.