The tribunal found that Mr Longton had displayed a lack of integrity and breached other SRA principles by acting in some transactions for both buyers and sellers, giving rise to risks of a conflict of interest. Some of the developments failed to complete while several of the special purpose vehicles set up for each one went into administration. The firm acted on hundreds of sales worth over £63m in all.
The idea was that the individual owners would lease their units back to the developer in exchange for an annual payment over 10 years, ultimately resulting in an expected rate of return on investment of 12-24%. Metis advised Mr Woodhouse on around 25 developments of care homes, student accommodation and hotels funded by individual investors purchasing single units off-plan.īuyers paid deposits of the whole purchase price, held by the sellers’ solicitors who could release them to the developer immediately, rather than on completion. He had been a partner and head of commercial property. The solicitor, who qualified in 1999, worked from 2012 at Metis Law until his resignation on 24 June 2019, two days before publication of a joint ITV News/ Guardian investigation into Mr Woodhouse.
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Mr Longton said that, between 20, Mr Woodhouse was the “best client” of Metis Law, and, as the relationship grew stronger, the solicitor became the developer’s “principal lawyer”.Īsked whether he had disclosed his professional relationship with Mr Woodhouse to any of his buyer clients, Mr Longton said he had not. The profile of the people he was working with gave no indication that he was in anyway not reputable.” “There were YouTube films which showed Mr Woodhouse with Princess Anne showing her round a proposed ski slope.
Mr Longton told the SDT he started working for Mr Woodhouse in 2016 and there was “nothing to suggest that there was anything untoward” about the developer. It has also been reported that Mr Longton’s firm, the now-defunct Metis Law in Leeds, and its alleged successor firm, are facing a £55m professional negligence action over the work.
The announcement followed media reports about losses suffered by people who had bought properties in Mr Woodhouse’s developments. In August 2021, the Serious Fraud Office began investigating “suspected fraud and money laundering in relation to the conduct of business by Gavin Woodhouse and individuals and companies associated with him” arising from investment schemes between 20. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said Richard Longton’s wish to keep the client, Gavin Woodhouse, had “blinded” him to the “obvious risk of conflict” – which later “became manifest as actual risk” – in acting for both Mr Woodhouse’s companies and the purchasers of properties in his off-plan development schemes. SDT: Solicitor took “ill-considered short cuts”Ī solicitor who described a property developer currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office as his law firm’s “best client” has been fined £45,000 for misconduct.
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