Barnaby Hone successfully represented the BSB in the High Court, to uphold a BTAS decision, where they had suspended a barrister found to have misused his clients' money
Barnaby represented the BSB throughout these proceedings at all levels. The case involved a vulnerable client of the Barrister who she had instructed Wayne Lewis via direct access. The High Court upheld the findings of the Panel and their 18-month suspension of the Barrister.
You can access the High Court judgment here and the article from Legal Futures can be accessed in full here.
The detail of the case against Wayne Lewis has only come into the public domain after the High Court rejected his appeal against the findings and sanction. A direct access barrister who impermissibly held a divorce client’s money and then did not pay all of it back has been suspended for 18 months by a disciplinary tribunal.
This misconduct was added to by the appellant accepting money when he knew he was not allowed to by the BSB Handbook. It was aggravated by the appellant mixing the money with his failing company’s money and then taking £38,000 for his own purposes on 3.10.2019 and never explaining to the tribunal, KW or the court what he did with that.
The original decision of the BSB can be found here.
“In my judgment the tribunal was entitled to infer he used it himself based on his own evidence in some communications in which he said he mis-spent it.”
The tribunal did not overlook the mitigating factors of Mr Lewis’s age, experience or good record, and “rightly noted” that, as most of his work was direct access, “no protection was afforded by other trained and regulated lawyers” and so there was an ongoing risk.
“Overall I do not consider that the sanction of 18 months suspension was wrong or reached in a procedurally incorrect manner.”
Barnaby is a barrister with specialist expertise in all types of asset recovery and financial crime (both criminal and civil). He works on all circuits in England and Wales, as well as being regularly instructed on international matters. He is regularly instructed as a Junior alone or as a leading Junior in complicated matters. He represents Defendants, third parties, and a range of law enforcement agencies (including the SFO, HMRC and the NCA).
Barnaby also appears in professional discipline matters at all levels for both regulators and registrants. In particular appears of healthcare, legal and financial professionals. Barnaby prosecutes and defends in regulatory and financial crime matters, which have an asset recovery element. This includes being instructed on a series of high-profile private Prosecutions for the Royal Mail Group and he is regularly instructed by the Environment Agency. He is ranked in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500, Band 2 & Tier 2, for his expertise within asset recovery matters. Barnaby has contributed to publications on International Asset Recovery and Terrorism Finance.
