BUYING TIME

A solicitor was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £2,600 for deliberately reassuring clients that their cases were going through the courts. Catherine Sandbach was at Woodfines Solicitors when she misled a client that her boundary dispute was progressing through court. She also told a client over a nine-month period that his business dispute was progressing; and in a third case, she misled a client by backdating an email to the Insolvency Service. In each case, she knew she had not issued court proceedings (an annulment application in the third case). Sandbach, who was admitted to thWe roll in 2009, was found by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) to have repeatedly told mistruths to conceal her own inaction. She admitted the aggravating factor of dishonesty in all three cases. Her claims in mitigation that, for instance, she was under a great deal of stress, suffering anxiety and was seeking to buy more time to help her with an increasing workload, were not endorsed by the SRA. 30 January

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