By Gavin Mackintosh-
A solicitor who withdrew over £250,000 of a client’s money before disappearing has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Nicholas Paul Tsioupras, a sole practitioner based in North London was found to have dishonestly withdrawn over a quarter of a million pounds from his firm’s client account over the course of two months before emailing his client to say he had closed the firm and ‘he wouldn’t be around for a while’.
Between 25 June 2018 and 13 August 2018, the dodgy solicitor made improper withdrawals from the firm’s client account totalling £415,221.00. This caused a minimum cash shortage on client account, leading to the clients bank account to become overdrawn.
Tsiopranos also failed to keep accounting records properly written up to show dealings with client and office money. They also failed to appropriately record all dealings with client money on client ledgers in breach of SRA rules.
The 51 year old solicitor failed to comply with his legal and regulatory obligations and deal with his regulator in an open, timely and co-operative manner during the period. Tsiopranos did not attend the hearing and was not represented either, despite being notified in advance. He also had not co-operated with the SRA investigation at all.
Client can make a claim to the SRA compensation fund which is discretionary.
The SRA told The Eye Of Media.Com that they intervened in this firm by closing down the firm on the 3rd September 2018 to avoid the risk to the public. ”We do this to effectively stop the client’s account, so that money cannot go in or out of it when we are aware of a serious risk”., a spokesperson for The SRA said.
However, both the SRA and the Solicitors Tribunal Authority admitted they did not involve the police because their remit is just to investigate a case and pronounce their own judgements.
Nicholas Angelo solicitors was based in 23 Hamden Square, Southgate. The firm acted for the client in the purchase of a flat for £332,000.00 which was completed on 31 July 2018. The balance to complete the matter was £350,651.00.
ANGRY CLIENTS
According to the judgement, Tsioupras told the trainee solicitor that ‘obviously there are going to be a few angry clients’ but that the closure of the firm would be covered by his indemnity insurance. When the trainee solicitor went to his home address to look for him, Tsioupras’s brother told him he had gone travelling in Malaysia.
According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Tsioupras had withdrawn £415,221 from the client account over four transactions and £252,199 had been transferred to an account in his name. The tribunal said the respondent’s conduct had been ‘disgraceful’ and caused his clients financial loss.
It added that his culpability was ‘very high’, that he had acted dishonestly, without integrity and had damaged public trust.
It added that the trainee solicitor had acted ‘very commendably’ in informing the SRA and in ‘trying to appease some very angry and frustrated clients’. Tsioupras, who did not attend the hearing and did not reply to the SRA, was struck off by the tribunal and ordered to pay costs of £8,361