Devlin explains to the SRA how he knew he’d do the work in the future.
An associate solicitor has been struck off after he charged clients in advance for work he hadn’t yet done.
Nick Devlin, who qualified in 2015, joined the probate team at the Cumbrian firm of Cartmel Shepherd in 2019.
In July 2022, the firm’s credit controller asked Devlin if she could chase any of his clients for payment, as there were outstanding bills listed against 37 of his matters totalling £55k.
Devlin asked her to supress them, but in October 2022 the head of the probate team, Deborah Flynn, emailed Cartmels’ Managing Director to give him the “heads up” on irregularities she was beginning to uncover in Devlin’s files.
“I am going through the old debts of Nick’s, to work out which ones to deduct for the bonus. There is a worrying pattern of billing early on and then not doing the docs”, she said.
“I have found no ID, correspondence, T&Cs etc, so he has to deal with them”, she said. “I expect all of the extra fees he has made for the bonus will be deducted.”
A month later Devlin began to divulge his missteps to Flynn, emailing her a list of 11 matters where bills had been created but not sent to clients, and “where work was recorded before it was done”.
Pressed by Flynn on one matter, Devlin stated that he had recorded 178 units of time in May 2021 and March 2022 for work he had not done and included ten hours of it on bills he had not sent.
Flynn continued her review and informed Devlin that she’d found another 16 matters with similar issues.
The solicitor provided her with a spreadsheet showing he had billed 459 units to nine clients without having done the actual work, and recorded a further 182 units for work not yet done.
More emails to Flynn followed as Devlin divulged itemised breakdowns of his creative time recording, and a full confession followed at an investigation interview held by the firm in March 2023.
Devlin conceded that he had removed approximately £216,000 in total from the firm’s client account to settle bills he hadn’t sent to clients. He said he’d withheld the invoices because he hadn’t done the work, and he didn’t want the clients to query why they were getting charged.
According to the firm’s meeting note, Devlin said he had recorded the time “hoping to get the work done within a week after recording the time, but felt that it had spiralled out of control so didn’t get it done”.
Devlin told the firm in a follow-up statement as part of the disciplinary process, “I have found myself under incredible stress with an excessive workload which included files of both substantial size and limited profitability, in circumstances where I had limited support and was expected to supervise a number of staff (including my Head of Department)”.
The firm confirmed to the SRA that “ultimately” clients weren’t left out of pocket as it restored the client account, “However, there was significant possibility that clients could have been disadvantaged had we not done so”.
The firm also rebutted Devlin’s mitigation. He “has never been under undue pressure and has himself requested increased fee targets (and salary to go with them)”, it told the SRA.
Devlin was “authorised to stop taking new work, to stop taking work he saw as disruptive or unproductive, to block out his diary, and to use additional support staff. Conversely, he has come forward on occasions requesting more work”, said the firm.
Devlin admitted that he was dishonest, lacked integrity and was reckless, and the SDT ordered him to be struck off and to pay £10,000 of the SRA’s costs.