Solicitor lied to client for 17 years over claim
A SOLICITOR strung a client along for 17 years and lied that she had won a £360,000 payout for a workplace injury claim.
Nicholas Giles Collins, who was a partner at Slater & Gordon in Cardiff, has been barred from the profession after admitting he made “a series of false and misleading statements” to his client.
The client worked at the Inland Revenue (now known as HMRC) between 1996 and 2003. Around 1997 she made a claim under a compensation scheme for employees affected by repetitive strain injuries and similar disorders.
She was offered a £30,000 settlement in 2002, but after she retired the following year on ill health grounds, she sought a higher figure in compensation.
The woman told how Mr Collins took on the claim in 2004. Over the following 17 years he repeatedly misled her. In 2013 he lied that instructed counsel had valued her claim at £245,000 and the following year he lied that she had won £360,136 in compensation.
He also lied that he had begun enforcement proceedings of a court order against HMRC.
During this period he made fake documents to support his deception, including notes of court hearings.
In fact, Mr Collins had never made any contact with HMRC, there had never been any court hearings, she had never been awarded any damages, and he had taken no “substantive steps” to progress the claim, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard.
The lies were uncovered in 2020 after the client contacted her MP Mel Stride, who represents central Devon, because she believed HMRC was delaying payment. When the politician made enquiries with HMRC he was told there was no record of a claim being made. The client then reported Mr Collins to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, saying she believed he was dishonest and had committed fraud.
Collins admitted to Slater & Gordon that he had misled the client for a long time. An internal investigation found he had gone to “great lengths” to conceal what was happening. He even closed the claim on the law firm’s case management system so it would not be listed as active.
In her witness statement the client said: “If the claim had been sorted quickly as it should have been then my husband and I would’ve been able to use that money for our retirement. It makes me very angry. I feel like I have been conned.
“Mr Collins caused me considerable stress and anxiety since he took over my case in 2004 and this continues
as my compensation case is far from being resolved. I have sleepless nights thinking about if this will ever be sorted.
“As HMRC are no longer prepared to deal with my claim and S&G (Slater & Gordon) are unable to continue to act for me, I’m not convinced that I will get what I was awarded originally or anything at all.
“The only option I can see open to me is to sue S&G which would mean having to trust another firm of solicitors and having the continuing stress and expense of legal action in order to bring about a resolution to my claim.
“My compensation case has dominated most of my life. I was 24 when my case started and currently my claim is in its 26th year without no resolution in sight. I do not know why Mr Collins would do this to me, why he would string me along all these years.
“At any time over the last 19 years, he could have owned up but even now after he has been caught out he has not acknowledged or apologised for his dishonesty.”
She added that the expectation of an incoming payout had contributed to her husband taking early retirement in 2013.
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Collins graduated in law from Cardiff University in 1992 and became a solicitor in 1995. When he took on the case he was an associate solicitor for Russell Jones & Walker, which was acquired in 2012 by Slater & Gordon, where Mr Collins was a partner.
He resigned in December 2021 while facing disciplinary proceedings at the firm. He later brought an unsuccessful employment tribunal claim alleging the firm had unfairly dismissed him.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Mr Collins had co-operated in full with the investigation and had “a previously unblemished 20-year career” but when it came to the former Inland Revenue worker’s case he had acted dishonestly over “an extensive period of time”.
The only reasonable option was to strike him off the roll of solicitors, the tribunal concluded. Mr Collins was ordered to pay costs of £6,316.