AN ASIAN-ORIGIN solicitor who manipulated a client into sending explicit images by saying they were required for legal reasons has been struck off, The Law Society Gazette reports.
The solicitor, Sunny Sidhu, was handling the divorce case for a woman, who had approached Warwickshire-based firm LDJ Solicitors in November 2020.
She wanted their advice on divorce proceedings and obtaining a prohibited steps order against the father of her children.
Sidhu claimed he needed the images to protect his client from her ex-husband carrying out an act of revenge porn and to support a non-molestation order application.
In its judgment, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said while Sidhu accepted he had known his client to be vulnerable but did not obtain the images for his own gratification.
Sidhu claimed the photos sent to him would be uploaded to a secure file on the firm’s case management system and then deleted from the phone.
But he did not tell the woman he had provided his personal number. "In doing so he had taken advantage of a person he had known to be vulnerable," the judgment said.
The SDT found Sidhu to be dishonest and his conduct was 'inappropriate’ and ‘sexually motivated’.
Striking off Sidhu, the panel said his was planned and a clear breach of the position of trust the woman had placed in him.
Sidhu was ordered to pay the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s costs of £32,394.
