£18,000 costs and disgrace: Kanwar Bhan struck off as partner reprimanded with £1,000 hit

SDT strikes Kanwar Bhan from the Roll with £18k costs; the second solicitor only reprimanded with £1k bill

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off solicitor Kanwar Bhan, ordering him to pay £18,000 in costs, after finding he dishonestly misused client funds and presided over a fraudulent conveyancing transaction. A second solicitor, whose name has been withheld in the ruling, was reprimanded and ordered to pay £1,000 towards costs for her failings as compliance officer.

The ruling followed an investigation into GS Law LLP, which Bhan controlled from offices in Southall and Wolverhampton. A forensic inspection by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2013 uncovered a litany of serious accounting breaches. The tribunal heard that the firm kept no proper ledgers, had never carried out client account reconciliations, and suffered a minimum shortfall of £104,753 on its client account.

Bhan admitted to investigators that he used client money to pay the firm’s bills, insisting he intended to replace it later. When pressed on a £33,000 transfer, he claimed he had “hit the wrong key” and meant only to withdraw £3,300. Bank statements, however, revealed spending on restaurants, jewellery and clothing — purchases the tribunal said could never be justified as legitimate business expenses. In its judgment, the tribunal found his actions were dishonest by the standards of ordinary, honest people and that he knew they were dishonest at the time.

The scale of the misconduct grew darker still when investigators examined Bhan’s role in a purported £4.1 million property sale at 55 S Road, London. The tribunal found that he accepted identity documents from an unverified “agent”, relied on dubious certificates, and released millions of pounds of client money to third parties without verifying who they were. The signatures of the supposed vendors did not match their passports, and the residual balance of nearly £280,000 vanished. Within weeks the Land Registry confirmed the transaction was a fraud, triggering a claim on the Compensation Fund.

Bhan was also found to have misled insurers. In his 2012 professional indemnity insurance application, he stated bank reconciliations were carried out monthly, despite admitting later that none had ever been performed. The tribunal ruled the false statement lacked integrity and was likely to undermine public trust in the profession.

Alongside Bhan’s misconduct, the tribunal examined the conduct of his fellow solicitor, who had been appointed as the firm’s Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration. She admitted that she had not understood the role, had no access to financial records, and had relied on Bhan’s assurances that he would train her. In reality, she was given no support and had no involvement in the firm’s banking arrangements. The tribunal accepted she was naïve, inexperienced and misled by Bhan, but stressed that as a principal in the firm she bore some responsibility for failing to identify and report the breaches.

The panel concluded that Bhan’s conduct represented one of the most serious breaches possible, involving dishonesty and misuse of client money on a sustained basis. It found no exceptional circumstances to justify any sanction short of striking him off the Roll of Solicitors. His colleague’s culpability was deemed far less, but still sufficient to merit a formal reprimand and a costs order of £1,000.

Summing up, the tribunal stated that Bhan’s misuse of client funds and his part in a fraudulent transaction had caused immense damage to public confidence in the profession. His colleague’s failings, though serious, arose from misplaced trust and inexperience. Together the outcomes mark a tale of financial ruin, dishonesty and professional disgrace, with Bhan’s career ended in shame and his partner left with a public stain on her record.