Syed Sibtain

Introduction

Syed Sibtain is an England and Wales solicitor, admitted in April 2016, who was struck off the roll by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) in 2026 after admitting that he backdated a letter and tried to mislead his employer about it. The case concerned an email he sent to opposing solicitors in October 2023 purporting to contain a copy of the original acknowledgement of service letter dated from July, when the document’s own properties showed it had been created in October 2023. When the recipients flagged the discrepancy, Sibtain gave shifting accounts before confirming to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that he had backdated the letter and tried to mislead his firm because he was afraid he would lose his job. He and the regulator agreed an outcome that he be struck off, and the tribunal ordered him to pay £5,000 in costs.

Background Information

Sibtain qualified as a solicitor in April 2016 and worked at Thursfields, a Midlands firm that has since been acquired by Knights. He turns 41 in August 2026, the month the case was reported, meaning the striking-off landed as he reached his early forties and roughly a decade into his practising career. The matter that ended it was procedural rather than headline-grabbing: an acknowledgement of service, a routine litigation document, that he failed to send when he should have and then dated to make it appear it had been posted months before. The case reached the SDT — the tribunal that hears misconduct allegations against solicitors — on the basis of an agreed outcome with the SRA rather than a contested hearing.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. Sibtain admitted the conduct: he confirmed to the SRA that he backdated the letter and tried to mislead his employer, and he agreed with the regulator an outcome that he be struck off, with £5,000 in costs ordered on top. The findings are regulatory, made before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal — not criminal convictions — and the agreed outcome left only his mitigation for the tribunal to hear.

In October 2023, Sibtain sent an email to opposing solicitors purporting to contain a copy of the original acknowledgement of service letter dated from July. The opposing solicitors noted that the document properties showed it had been created in October 2023, and brought this to the attention of Sibtain’s firm.

Asked to explain, Sibtain initially told an internal investigation that issues with his laptop could have led to the discrepancy. He said the document had been created in July and then saved on his desktop only, rather than the firm’s database, and that he opened it again in October — which, he believed, was how the metadata came to show that it was created then. He later changed his account after he could not locate an electronic copy of the letter he claimed to have sent in July. This time, he claimed to have sent a recreated version of what he believed he had sent, which he said was purely for the opposing firm’s records — without telling the firm that the original could not be located and that he was sending a ‘recreation’.

Sibtain subsequently confirmed to the SRA that he backdated the letter and tried to mislead his employer because he was afraid he would lose his job.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The matter came before the SDT in July 2026, where it was heard that Sibtain and the SRA had agreed an outcome that he be struck off. What was not agreed was the mitigation. Sibtain said he had been struggling to reach billing targets, and that when he realised his error in not sending the letter when he should have, he was afraid to admit what had happened through fear of losing his job at the moment his wife was due to give birth to his fourth child in two months. The tribunal struck him off and ordered him to pay £5,000 costs. The Law Gazette’s report of the case was headlined around his claim that he acted because he feared for his job.

Current Status

Sibtain is struck off the roll, which removes his ability to practise as a solicitor in England and Wales, and he was ordered to pay £5,000 in costs. The sanction followed the outcome agreed with the SRA that was put before the SDT in July 2026, and the report does not indicate any appeal against it. He turns 41 in August 2026, the month the strike-off was reported, with his wife due to give birth to the couple’s fourth child two months on from his mitigation.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The strike-off ends Sibtain’s career as a solicitor roughly a decade after his April 2016 admission. A document he backdated to cover a missed step in litigation — an acknowledgement of service he should have sent months earlier — cost him the profession outright, with £5,000 in costs attached. His own account to the regulator framed the misconduct as a panic response: having realised he had failed to send the letter, he feared that admitting it would cost him his job, and he backdated the document instead. In mitigation that the SRA did not agree, he pointed to the pressure of billing targets and to his family circumstances — a wife due to give birth to their fourth child within two months — but neither altered the agreed outcome. Because he accepted the finding that he backdated the letter and tried to mislead his employer, the record shows a solicitor struck off on his own admission rather than on contested evidence.

Sources

• Law Gazette, “Solicitor claimed to fear for his job as he backdated letter,” Aug 27, 2026 — source