Gregg
Holden
Employee
820368
Decision - Employee-related decision
Outcome: Control of non-qualified staff (Section 43 / Section 99 order)
Outcome date: 9 April 2024
Published date: 10 May 2024
Firm details
No detail provided:
Outcome details
This outcome was reached by SRA decision.
Decision details
Who does this decision relate to?
Gregg Holden whose last known address was in Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire.
A person who is or was involved in a legal practice but is not a solicitor.
Summary of decision
The SRA has put restrictions on where and how Mr Holden can work in an SRA regulated firm. It was found that:
Mr Holden, who is not a solicitor, was involved in a legal practice and has occasioned or been a party to an act or default which involved such conduct on his part that it is undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice in any of the ways described in the order below.
The facts of the case
Mr Holden worked as a litigation locum at Latimer Lee Solicitors Limited from October 2022 to 28 April 2023. On 2 May 2023, Mr Holden used a false domain name, of which he had control, to mislead the Sellick Partnership by sending an email purporting to be from Latimer Lee Solicitors Limited authorising timesheets and obtaining payment in circumstances where he knew those timesheets had not been authorised.
Decision on outcome
An order pursuant to section 43(2) of the Solicitors Act 1974 was imposed as Mr Holden's conduct meant that it was undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA's prior approval. The order pursuant to section 43 was made with effect from the date of the letter or email notifying Mr Holden of this decision.
Mr Holden's conduct was serious because he acted dishonestly in using a false domain name and creating a false email identity into order to mislead an employment agency into believing that timesheets had been authorised by the firm he worked for when in fact he knew they had not been.
Mr Holden was also ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA's costs of £1,350.
What our Section 43 order means
- no solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with his/her practice as a solicitor;
- no employee of a solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the solicitor's practice;
- no recognised body shall employ or remunerate him;
- no manager or employee of a recognised body shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the business of that body;
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to be a manager of the body; and
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to have an interest in the body
except in accordance with the SRA's prior written permission.