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Lawyer Peniston banned from practicing

Lawyer Llewellyn Peniston has been disbarred after multiple complaints against him by clients.The news was announced by the Registrar of the Courts.Mr Peniston, 57, was found guilty last December by a disciplinary tribunal of six counts of improper conduct relating to “dishonesty and failing to observe professional ethics and etiquette”.The complainant, Irma Burrows, accused him of “conducting himself in a manner likely to impair his client’s trust in him, failure to be competent, diligent and efficient in all his professional duties and failure to maintain sufficient balances in his trust accounts to meet all his obligations”.Mr Peniston also admitted to a charge of practising while he was suspended over an earlier complaint against him.The tribunal found him guilty of failure to maintain accounting records and issuing threats.It ordered in January 2012 that Mr Peniston be disbarred and struck off the roll of barristers and attorneys.According to a notice placed in the Official Gazette by Registrar of the Courts Charlene Scott, Mr Peniston appealed both matters to the Court of Appeal but the appeals were dismissed “for want of prosecution”, on June 7.“As such, Mr James Arnett Llewellyn Peniston is hereby disbarred and struck-off the roll of barristers and attorneys,” reported Ms Scott.Mr Peniston, a former UBP Senator who ran the law firm Peniston and Associates, has a history of woes dating back to before he was Called to the Bar in the year 2000.He used to run his own shipping company which placed into receivership in 1994.According to a prosecutor in a 1998 fraud case, he left Bermuda in 1995 to attend Buckingham University, England, to study law just as the Official Receiver Mark Diel was about to question him on his financial affairs.Upon his return he was tried and cleared on appeal of concealing the proceeds of two pension policies.During the fraud trial Mr Peniston’s lawyer, the late Julian Hall, called Mr Diel and prosecutors “bullies” for pursuing the case.After beginning work as a lawyer, Mr Peniston was punished by the Bar disciplinary panel in January 2007.He was given a one-year suspension from all work involving real estate law after he “acted in a verbally abusive and intimidating manner” and “failed to abide by the terms of his professional undertaking”.In August 2008, a Supreme Court judge told Mr Peniston he could end up behind bars if he didn’t pay two former clients almost $10,500 owing to them.He paid off the debt to Terry Philpott and Desmond Richardson, who brought a civil action against him, a day after the judge’s warning.In December 2008, he was suspended for a month after admitting failing to produce his accounts for the Bermuda Bar Association.In December 2010 he was banned from practising anything other than criminal law for two years after a disciplinary panel probed complaints about his financial activities.Mr Peniston spoke out after the case via his lawyer Eugene Johnston, claiming that people in the legal world were trying to scupper his career.In May 2011 he was declared bankrupt and ordered by the Supreme Court to hand over any assets of value, such as his home, income and possessions, to help pay off his debts.Mr Peniston could not be reached for comment.Under the Bermuda Bar Act, he has the right to apply to the Bar Council to be reinstated in future. The eventual decision must be made by the Supreme Court.