Tribunal found solicitor altered emails sent to her employer to conceal misleading explanations previously given to the SRA
A solicitor has been struck off after admitting dishonesty during an investigation into her drink-driving conviction, including altering emails sent to her employer about communications with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal approved an agreed outcome between the SRA and Louisa Frances Clapton, a former in-house solicitor at Pemberton Capital Advisors LLP, at a hearing on 29 April 2026.
The tribunal said the only appropriate and proportionate sanction was to strike Clapton off the roll because of the dishonesty findings against her.
Clapton, admitted as a solicitor in 2012, was arrested on 8 July 2023 after police stopped her following a collision. An intoximeter reading showed 50 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, above the legal limit of 35 micrograms. She was also found to be driving without valid insurance after her policy had been invalidated because she failed to install required “black box” monitoring equipment.
On 24 July 2023, she pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to driving with excess alcohol and using a motor vehicle without third-party insurance. She was disqualified from driving for 14 months and ordered to pay a financial penalty. She notified the SRA of the conviction on the same day.
The tribunal heard that the SRA later sought further information while considering the renewal of her practising certificate. Between March and April 2024, the regulator sent repeated requests for documents and explanations relating to the conviction.
After failing to respond to earlier requests, Clapton told the SRA that delays had been caused first by illness and later because her father had suffered a serious heart attack. Evidence later provided by her employer, however, raised concerns about the accuracy of those explanations.
The tribunal found that on or before 21 May 2024, Clapton forwarded amended email correspondence to her line manager, Bethany Walker, which altered explanations previously given to the SRA. The amended emails removed references to illness and changed wording concerning her father’s medical condition.
When Walker later compared the altered emails with the original correspondence, discrepancies became apparent. The tribunal said Clapton knew the information she had provided to the SRA was “untrue” and knew the emails sent to her employer were misleading because they had been altered “in order to conceal the account given to the Applicant”.
In its judgment, the tribunal stated: “The Tribunal determined that ordinary and decent people would find such conduct to be dishonest.”
Clapton admitted all allegations, including breaches of Principles 2, 4 and 5 of the SRA Principles 2019. The tribunal found that the dishonesty findings made strike-off inevitable.
Clapton resigned from Pemberton Capital Advisors LLP in July 2024 and no longer holds a practising certificate. She was also ordered to pay costs of £7,548.