Barred fromLegal Profession for theft
fee-earner has been barred from the legal profession after she was found to have stolen more than £60,000 from her employer.
Oonagh Frances Grant, who worked as a fee-earner at Manches, which has since been acquired by Penningtons, was given a two-year suspended sentence after she was convicted of 10 counts of theft. She was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
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While working at Manches she was found to have transferred around £62,000 to third parties connected to her but unconnected to the transactions concerned, according to a solicitors authorisation notice issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
The theft was discovered after a review of files she had dealt with after she left the firm in July 2010. Grant admitted to the theft and was convicted in September 2011.
The SRA said due to her criminal conviction it would be ‘undesirable’ for her to work in the legal profession. She may not be employed in any solicitor’s practice or by any solicitor without the regulator’s permission.
