A solicitor whose firm received £132,000 for a client’s divorce and then ignored her requests for the money to be transferred has been struck off.
The payments were made into the client account of south-west London firm Able Law upon settlement of the client’s divorce proceedings in 2020 and the money was supposed to be released to her by its sole practitioner Analiza Kjaer.
But despite numerous attempts by the client to find out what happened to her money, Kjaer largely failed to respond and failed to make any transfer.
When the firm was intervened into in 2021, the client account had a balance of £64,461 – meaning more than half the funds were unaccounted for. The compensation fund, paid for through contributions from the profession, later paid the client her £132,000 plus interest to cover the loss. Kjaer’s conduct has also been reported to the police.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Kjaer, admitted in 2005, was reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority by the client following the lack of payments.
The client sent numerous emails chasing the transfer but received just one reply from Kjaer, who asked for her bank details and apologised for the delay. She then ignored all subsequent emails to her personal account and firm account.
After disciplinary proceedings were initiated, the solicitor failed to reply to any SRA correspondence and did not engage with the tribunal process.
The tribunal found Kjaer had acted dishonestly and without integrity. She had told the client she intended to ‘chase up’ the missing payments a month after they had been received. She knew she had received the full amount and offered no explanation for why the funds were not released.
In her absence, Kjaer was struck off and ordered to pay almost £28,000 costs.
