Kesakapillai Raveenderan, born in 1949, of law firm, K Ravi Solicitors, Pinner, Middlesex, was ordered to be struck off the Roll of Solicitors and instructed to pay £10,000 in costs to be acquired from the sale of his property.
Mr Raveenderan withdrew client money and utilised it for his own benefit, created false invoices to transfer client money and carried out unpermitted ledger transfers of client money.
Mr Raveenderan was instructed in 2013 for the purchase of a business and a freehold property due to be funded by a mortgage from Barclays Bank and client funds.
Due to the solicitor using some of mortgage advance from Barclays on an unrelated matter, a £140,000 shortfall was created blocking him from being able to complete the transaction for the client.
As a result of this and the events that soon followed, an intervention occurred at the firm a few days later and Mr Raveenderan had his practice certificate suspended. The case was then also referred to the Tribunal.
At the recent hearing, Mr Raveenderan admitted that he fabricated invoices in order to transfer funds from his client account to his office account and then later concealed his actions from auditors.
Mr Raveenderan admitted to taking around £137,000 from his client account in order to be able to keep his firm running.
During mitigation, Mr Raveenderan stated he regretted what had happened and that personal and other circumstances had affected the practice. He mentioned that a £39,000 increase in his professional indemnity insurance premium placed a huge financial pressure on him.
It would have cost him around £7,000 to close the firm, but he claimed to have decided to keep trading for the sake of his staff as they had mortgages.
He also asked to carry on practicing as a solicitor without controlling client accounts, so he could pay off his debts.
However, the Tribunal ordered that he was to be struck off and was to pay a £10,000 fixed sum which was to be funded through the sale of his property.
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