Former Ince & Co partner Andrew Iyer has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after an initial investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for misconduct.

The SRA made the referral in recent weeks and a date is still to be set for the hearing, which is likely to result in the tribunal imposing either financial penalties or striking Iyer off the solicitors' roll. In general, a decision of dishonesty is likely to result in a lawyer being struck off.

The referral comes after Iyer resigned from Ince last July following a period of suspension for "irregular financial behavior".

His actions are also being investigated by the Metropolitan Police's fraud squad, with a report in today's Evening Standard suggesting the alleged fraud involved around £3m of client money.

Iyer was global energy and offshore head at Ince at the time of his suspension. He had also carved out a career as a novelist and had written two legal thrillers, The Betrayed and Domino Run.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said in a statement: "(We) can confirm that an allegation of fraud was referred to the MPS by a law firm based in East London.

"The allegation was assessed by the Economic and Specialist Crime Command's Fraud Squad and an investigation began. There have been no arrests and enquiries are ongoing."

A spokesperson from Ince said: "As reported in our July 2010 statement, Nathan Andrew Iyer was suspended on 22 July 2010 and subsequently resigned as a consequence of his irregular financial behaviour.

"No other members of staff were involved. We reported the issue to the police and the SRA at the time of discovery. We immediately took steps to ensure no clients would suffer any loss. The matter since then has been in the hands of the police and the SRA. Because of this, we can make no further comment."

The news follows the dismissal of Hogan Lovells litigation partner Christopher Grierson earlier this month after wrongly claiming more than £1m in expenses. Grierson is also under investigation by the SRA but the case has yet to be referred to the police.