A solicitor has been struck off and branded "dishonest" after mishandling hundreds of thousands of pounds of his clients' money.

Edward Foster, 50, operated County Solicitors, which had branches in Herne Bay, Broadstairs, Margate and Ramsgate.

Formed in 2016, it was closed down on Christmas Eve, 2019, by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Foster - the majority shareholder in the firm and chief executive officer - had authorised the withdrawal of more than £384,650 from its client account to apparently deal with cashflow problems within the company during 2018.

The findings emerged during a disciplinary tribunal brought by the SRA.

All solicitors operate carefully regulated client accounts. Operating in a similar way to an escrow account, they are for the use only of client funds. They can often hold substantial sums of money such as the of proceeds of house sales and mortgages. They must operate separately from the bank account for the law firm.

County Solicitors would handle work for a separate firm, County Conveyancing, which was itself owned by The Foster Partnership (TFP), also run by Foster.

TFP had its licence revoked by its regulator, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), in October 2019.

The tribunal into the case of County Solicitors took place in October 2022, but the documents relating to the findings were only published recently.

Foster had admitted all the allegations but denied dishonesty.

The SRA tribunal, however, thought otherwise.

In its conclusion it said: "The reputational harm to the profession of a solicitor acting dishonestly [...] was very serious and something which should have been obvious to Mr Foster.

"The seriousness of the conduct found proved and the protection of the reputation of the legal profession required that the appropriate sanction was strike off from the roll..."

"He had been sanctioned by the tribunal previously for misconduct with similar characteristics. The tribunal did not consider that there were any mitigating factors present, something which appeared to be acknowledged by the submissions made by his representative.

"Having found that Mr Foster had acted dishonestly, and that he had failed to act with integrity, the tribunal did not consider that a reprimand, fine or suspension were adequate sanctions.

"The tribunal considered that the seriousness of the conduct found proved and the protection of the reputation of the legal profession required that the appropriate sanction was strike off from the roll."

Two other solicitors at County Solicitors were also embroiled in the case. One, Robert Newman, was suspended for three months while Rashpal Kaur was fined £3,000 for her involvement.

The verdict means Foster, who first became a solicitor in 1997, can no longer conduct legal duties which only solicitors are entitled to perform.

He can, however, continue to operate in a different legal capacity.

He currently runs eLawyer Services in the High Street, Broadstairs - operating out of the former offices of County Solicitors - which the tribunal described as an "unregulated legal services company undertaking non-reserved legal activities".

There is no suggestion he is undertaking legal cases only permitted by a solicitor at the practice.