SRA found Jones Law Partnership lacked a documented risk assessment and controls for several years
Jones Law Partnership has agreed to pay a £7,696 fine after the Solicitors Regulation Authority found long-running failures in its anti-money laundering controls.
The Stockport firm, a recognised sole practice based in Marple, was investigated after being selected for an AML desk-based review by the SRA’s proactive supervision team.
The regulator found that the firm failed to have a documented firm-wide risk assessment in place between 26 June 2017 and September 2024, as required by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
The SRA also found that Jones Law Partnership failed to establish and maintain appropriate policies and procedures under the 2007 regulations before June 2017, and failed to maintain compliant policies, controls and procedures under the 2017 regulations between June 2017 and September 2024.
The firm has since provided a firm-wide risk assessment and policies, controls and procedures that the SRA found to be compliant with the 2017 regulations.
In a regulatory settlement agreement, the firm admitted breaches of the SRA Principles 2011 and 2019, as well as failures to comply with governance, systems, controls and record-keeping requirements under the SRA Codes of Conduct.
The SRA said the misconduct showed disregard for statutory and regulatory obligations and had the potential to cause harm by leaving the firm vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
The regulator said this was particularly significant because conveyancing formed a substantial part of the firm’s work. However, it noted that there was no evidence of actual harm or financial gain arising from the failures.
The SRA treated the misconduct as more serious because the requirements had been in force for many years and the failures formed a pattern of misconduct. The risk of harm was assessed as medium.
A basic penalty of £8,551 was reduced to £7,696 to reflect mitigation, including the firm’s early admission that it did not previously have documented AML controls in place and its cooperation with the SRA’s investigation.
The firm also agreed to pay £600 towards the SRA’s investigation costs. The agreement was dated 28 May 2026 and published on 22 June 2026.