A GRIEVING solicitor sobbed as he told a disciplinary tribunal the stress of his father's death had led him to fail his clients.

Hargopal Bains, 35, admitted not paying £1,000 in compensation to a doctor for “inadequacy of service”, in a property deal, and responsibility for a delay in paying £450 he owed in legal fees.

The doctor had been buying a medical centre, in Baring Road, Grove Park, and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Bains had neglected to carry out the registration of title in 1999.

Bains, boss of Bains and Partners in Balham High Street, told the tribunal that, following his father's death, he struggled with his workload.

He said: “I joined the firm in 1993 and built the practice up from virtually nothing.

“I became managing partner mainly because I'm the only one who can handle a calculator.

“Ultimately, it is my fault, but I left my colleagues pretty basic things to do which weren't done.”

Bains had also neglected to reply to letters from the Law Society, warning of complaints against him from clients.

Andrew Miller, acting for the Law Society, said: “If solicitors fail to deal with correspondence from their ruling body, not only is that extremely damaging to the reputation of the profession but it leads to the situation we have today.”

Tribunal chairman Richard Bamford said: “This is a very serious set of circumstances.

“You have failed to fulfil work for which you have been paid.”

Bains admitted failing to promptly honour a professional undertaking, failing to reply to correspondence from the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, failing to reply to correspondence on behalf of a client, failing to perform a retainer within reasonable time and failure to comply with a direction to pay £1,000 pursuant to the Solicitors Act.

The tribunal fined Bains £1,000 and ordered him to pay £904 costs.