​A Bridgwater solicitor has been suspended indefinitely “to protect the public” for a string of accounting failures.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that Jeremy Orchard failed to meet accounting regulations over three years.

He was alleged to have stuck his head in the sand when told to comply, leaving the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and the public in the dark as to whether he was exercising “proper stewardship over clients’ funds”.

After leaving Pardoes solicitors of Bridgwater, where he was formerly a partner, following complaints from a client over a land dispute in Wiltshire in 2005, Mr Orchard, 47, of Middlezoy, near Bridgwater, was working from home as a sole practitioner, called Orchard Legal at the time of the offences.

He failed to deliver account reports for the year ending March 31, 2007, and March 31, 2008, to the SRA, failed to reply to correspondence, kept office money in a client bank account, and kept interest earned on the general account in the client account. He did not attend the disciplinary hearing, held in London in June.

The Tribunal decided it was necessary “in order to protect the public” to order Mr Orchard be suspended from practice for an indefinite period. He was ordered to pay costs of £3,019.

The hearing heard Mr Orchard was reminded by email on October 22, 2007, that an account report for the year ending March 31, 2007, should have been filed by September 30. The SRA received no reply to four further letters.

In July 2008 he emailed to say he was holding £53,011.68 in his client’s account but was away from his office for most of the month and would send his accounts report by the end of August. He failed to do so. He did not deliver the accounts to March 31, 2008, and failed to reply to two letters.

A Forensic Investigation Officer began an inspection in November 2008. Mr Orchard said he had been “too busy” to prepare accounts and would instruct his accountant to do so.

He produced a cash book for August 2008 but it did not properly record money dealings. He could not provide any accounting records, other than bank statements, before August 2008, saying he could not find them.

He did not record any office account transactions relating to client matters.

Inspection of the manual records for August and September 2008 showed a cash surplus of £4,358.27 and £4,619.30 respectively. Mr Orchard was sent five letters asking for a response to the investigation officer’s report but did not respond.

Asked to comment on his suspension, he again blamed “overwork” for the failures.