A solicitor convicted of blackmail has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
According to the tribunal, Michael John Potter threatened to go to the Financial Conduct Authority if his settlement demands to leave a company, of which he was director, were not met. He admitted the allegations against him that, in his role as a business director, he acted with a view to gain for himself or another, or with the intent to cause loss to another, by making an unwarranted demand with menaces.
Potter, admitted in February 1991, has not been employed as a solicitor since 1994. He undertook an interim consultancy role at Eversheds Sutherland (International) in June 2021 and his services were terminated in October that year.
He was appointed a director of 350 PPM Ltd in September 2019. By spring 2020, there had been a ‘breakdown in the relationship’ between Potter and the founding director which led to settlement negotiations in relation to Potter and another director John Price’s exit from the company.
In a remotely held board meeting, Potter and Price ‘advanced their negotiation positions…with the threat that they would proceed to report to the Financial Conduct Authority about alleged non-compliance by the company and [the founding director]’.
Potter appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court where he was convicted of blackmail. He was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, suspended for two years, and 240 hours of unpaid work.
In non-agreed mitigation to the SDT, Potter ‘apologised for his actions and lack of judgment and expressed genuine remorse’.
The SDT said in an agreed outcome ‘the nature of the criminal offence upon which he was convicted spoke for itself’.
The judgment added: ‘The respondent’s misconduct could only be viewed as extremely serious, and this fact, together with the need to protect the reputation of the legal profession, required that strike off from the roll was the only appropriate sanction.’
Potter was also ordered to pay £4,158 costs.
