Solicitor struck off after altering cheque
A leading solicitor who was convicted of altering a cheque to pay himself an extra £1,000 has been struck off by order of three of the nation's most senior judges.
Former East Sussex deputy coroner, Brendan John Salsbury, of Main Road, Icklesham, had a long and successful career as a criminal solicitor - representing high-profile clients such as Sion Jenkins, who was cleared of murdering his foster daughter, Billie-Jo.
But, in July 2006, his career hit the rocks when a Croydon Crown Court jury found he had altered a cheque, by adding 1,000 to the figure stated on it, and he was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay 3,000 prosecution costs.
The Law Society decided he should be struck off - but Salsbury, who is in his late 40s, successfully challenged that ruling at the High Court in March this year and was instead handed a three-year suspension.
However, the Law Society then mounted its own appeal against that ruling and Salsbury's legal career today lies in ruins after Appeal Court judges ruled his dishonesty was so serious that he had to be struck off for his "gross breach of professional conduct".
Lord Justice Jackson said Mr Salsbury had served as Clerk to the Trustees of the William Parker School who "did not operate an efficient system", relying mainly on trust and word of mouth.
In November 2000, the Trustees gave him a cheque for his services totalling 862.50. However, he altered the amount, to make the total 1,862.50 before banking it.
There was later a wide-ranging Charity Commission investigation into the affairs of the trust "as a result of which a number of trustees resigned", added the judge.
Disputes arose about money paid to Salsbury by the trust and the solicitor responded by repaying 25,000, "without accepting that he had any liability to do so".
However, that was not the end of the matter and a major police investigation ensued.
Salsbury was eventually indicted on 25 charges of theft, forgery, false accounting and obtaining money transfers by deception but, after a lengthy trial at Croydon Crown Court, was acquitted of all but one of the charges.
In relation to the changed cheque, the jury found Salsbury guilty of obtaining a money transfer by deception.
But the trial judge allowed him to walk free, saying that Salsbury genuinely believed he had earned the extra 1,000 he added to the cheque and that his conviction was "punishment enough" for a once respected solicitor.
The Law Society - "with an element of sadness" - later decided that Salsbury had to be struck off, but that decision was overturned by the High Court in March and he was instead handed a three-year suspension.
However, allowing the Law Society's appeal today, Lord Justice Jackson said he could not agree with the High Court's view that Salsbury's crime was "at the very bottom of the scale of dishonesty".
It appeared that Salsbury had amended both the words and figures on the cheque "with sufficient skill to deceive the bank" and the judge said he had been guilty of a "gross breach of professional conduct".
Ruling that striking off was "both appropriate and proportionate", the judge, sitting with Sir Mark Potter and Lady Justice Arden, said: "This was a case of serious dishonesty by the solicitor, where the normal consequences should follow".
Observing that solicitors frequently have access to large sums in client funds, the judge added: "If a solicitor abuses his right of access to those funds, that is a breach which undermines public confidence in the profession in a vital respect".
Agreeing that the Law Society's appeal be allowed, Lady Justice Arden said she had "no doubt" that, when the judge at Croydon decided not to jail Salsbury, that was in the "expectation" that he would be struck off for his dishonesty.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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