Senior solicitor who strung client along for 17 years by falsely telling her he ... trends now
A top solicitor has been thrown out of the profession after he hoodwinked a client for 17 years by falsely telling her he had won her £360,000 in compensation for a workplace personal injury claim.
Nicholas Collins, a partner at Slater & Gordon in Cardiff until he quit in December 2021, is said to have acted in a 'sophisticated, sustained and elaborate' manner and 'conned' the woman, telling he had secured her £360,000 in damages.
The 54-year-old personal injury specialist ‘misled’ his client, named only as EH, about the progress of her claim of compensation for repetitive strain injuries, a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard.
Mr Collins 'went to great lengths' by creating a string of documents and notes from court hearings that had never taken place.
He also falsely told EH he had instructed barristers, obtained court orders, that bailiffs had been instructed to enforce the award and a third party debt order had been obtained through the courts.
Mr Collins' fabrications were only uncovered when his client complained to her MP that her former employer hadn’t paid her the compensation Mr Collins told her he had won on her behalf.
The tribunal panel ruled the ‘only reasonable and proportionate’ sanction was for Mr Collins to be struck off after he ‘deprived’ his client of any future chance of compensation.
Nicholas Collins (pictured) is said to have 'conned' his client for years over her compensation
The panel heard EH previously worked for Inland Revenue - which later became HMRC - between 1996 and 2003, and was initially offered £30,000 in a final settlement in 2002.
But after retiring on ill health grounds the following year, she ‘sought a higher’ figure as Mr Collins took charge of her claim in March 2004.
The panel heard Mr Collins was the ‘only point of contact’ she had in dealing with her claim.
But in the 17 years between 2004 and 2020, Mr Collins made ‘numerous misleading statements’ about the progress of her claim.
He admitted to the panel how he had advanced a compensation claim and instructed barristers to reach a settlement figure with her ex-employers.
In March 2013, Mr Collins told EH she’d been awarded a compensation sum of £245,000, but texted her: 'Hello. £245k. Only got the figure. Seems light to me. Will find out more info and get in touch.'
After more back and forth, he eventually told her a final figure of over £360,000 had been agreed on, with a court order made for that amount.
However, he then said her former employers had appealed the decision, which was unsuccessful in September 2016.
In October 2017, he even claimed to have sent a letter to the Complaints Officer at High Court Enforcement Group in Swansea due to ‘purported delays’ in securing the damages.
Fearing HMRC were refusing or delaying paying out her settlement, EH contacted her local MP in Devon, Mel Stride in August 2020 and
