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A “dine and dash” solicitor has been struck off after ordering a £43 takeaway from Just Eat and shutting the door on the delivery driver without paying.
Kerry Ann Stevens insisted she had already paid for the food online but this was untrue and the cost of the meal was subsequently deducted from the driver’s wages, a professional tribunal heard.
The solicitor, who specialised in criminal law, had also been arrested for another offence in which she left a Harvester restaurant without paying a bill of £60, the panel was told.
Stevens was found guilty of two counts of fraud at a magistrates’ court and has now been thrown out of the profession after the tribunal found her guilty of misconduct for her “premeditated and deliberate” acts.
‘No doubt whatsoever’
Because she practised in criminal law, she would have been in “no doubt whatsoever” that she was committing a crime, the panel found.
The hearing of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was told that in January 2021, Stevens ordered £43.47 worth of food from a kebab shop via the Just Eat app.
A driver arrived at her home address just after 8pm to deliver the food and asked Stevens for payment. But the Essex-based solicitor insisted she had already paid when she placed the order and as the driver rang the restaurant to confirm, she shut the door in his face.
Bill deducted from driver’s salary
The Essex Grill kebab shop said Stevens had not paid for the food and that the delivery driver knocked on her door for several minutes but she did not answer.
The bill was subsequently deducted from the driver’s salary.
The solicitor, who qualified in 2016, told the police she believed her boyfriend had paid when placing the order online.
The panel heard that the year before, Stevens and her boyfriend ordered £60.91 worth of food at a Harvester restaurant in Rayleigh, Essex.
Partner had taken her bank card
After they had finished eating, Stevens’s boyfriend left the restaurant and she told a member of staff that she was unable to pay for the food as her partner had taken her bank card.
The solicitor said she would return to settle the bill and provided both her telephone number and her passport to staff.
Later that same evening, the restaurant’s duty manager called Stevens and confirmed that payment could be taken over the phone but the solicitor said she had no other cards to pay with and agreed to come back in the morning to pay the bill.
But the following day, the manager tried to call Stevens on the phone number provided and the call failed to connect.
Reported to the police
Months later, she contacted the Harvester’s care team via email and said she would need to collect her passport.
The manager contacted her again using a second telephone number which was later provided and said she would need to pay the bill and retrieve the passport.
The restaurant reported her to the police.
In March 2022, Stevens attended Suffolk magistrates’ court in Ipswich, where she was found guilty of two counts of fraud and ordered to pay a total of £1,943 in costs and compensation.
Professional misconduct
The professional tribunal struck her off as they found her convictions amounted to professional misconduct.
The panel said: “In assessing culpability, the tribunal found that the motivation was personal financial gain.
“The offences were premeditated and deliberate.
“Ms Stevens had complete culpability for these matters, as reflected in her convictions.
“In assessing the harm caused, there was obvious harm caused to the profession by a solicitor committing criminal offences, particularly when it was for financial gain.
“In this case, there had been loss caused to the Harvester restaurant and to the delivery driver from the Essex Grill who effectively had to pay for Ms Stevens’s meal.”
‘Element of attempted concealment’
The panel said there was an “element of attempted concealment” from Stevens as she shut the door on the delivery driver and evaded the attempts made by the Harvester to pay off her debt.
It added: “The tribunal further noted that Ms Stevens’s area of practice was criminal law.
“Ms Stevens would have therefore been in no doubt whatsoever that she was committing criminal offences on each occasion.”
She was also ordered to pay costs of £4,489.
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