A UK solicitor struck off for misconduct over improper client account transfers has failed in a bid to remain anonymous during his High Court appeal.
Harry Francis Cottam was struck off in October 2023 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after having been found guilty of misconduct. Cottam faced two allegations before the SDT, one of making dishonest transfers of client money into the office account and the creation of false invoices. The allegation over the improper transfers of money was found proved and the other dismissed.
Before the substantive appeal Cottam, whose SDT hearing was heard in private on medical grounds, conceded the appeal hearing was in open court, but asked if he could be granted anonymity on the same grounds.
Cottam is now working as a legal adviser. He told the court that ‘a struck-off solicitor is a social leper’ and the medical reports confirmed ‘what detriments and the dangerous effect publication would have on my wellbeing’.
Matthew Edwards, for the Solicitors Regulation Authority, opposed the request. Cottam was ‘advertising himself as a qualified legal adviser [and it is] only right that those who choose to instruct Mr Cottam are aware he was, or is currently, a struck-off solicitor’.
Mr Justice Macdonald refused to grant anonymity and said the appeal would proceed in open court. He said: ‘I am persuaded by the arguments of the SRA that there is a very strong public interest in the public knowing when a regulated professional has been struck off and the process by which that has taken place.’
Source:
