Former Hogan Lovells litigation partner Christopher Grierson has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) after defrauding the firm of £1.3m in false travel expenses.

Grierson was yesterday (1 November) struck off the solicitors' roll by the SDT and was ordered to pay £14,000.

The news comes after Grierson was sentenced to three years in prison this May. Grierson, who pleaded guilty in March this year after being charged by the City of London Police with four counts of false accounting, was handed sentences relating to four counts of fraud – one of 15 months, two of 36 months and one of 12 months, to run concurrently.

The four charges covered 57 fraudulent travel claims amounting to £1.27m over four years.

On handing down sentencing, the court took into account that the crime was planned, that it was a severe breach of trust and that it involved a substantial sum of money but against this added that the mitigating factors – including mental illness, repayment of the stolen money, his heart condition and the fact he has been ruined financially and professionally – were impressive.

Based on precedent, the maximum jail term would have been seven years' imprisonment, but Grierson was handed a reduced sentence in part due to his doctor's advice that a lengthy prison sentence could increase an already significant suicide risk.

Best known for working on the high-profile BCCI litigation, Grierson was dismissed by Hogan Lovells on 11 May last year following an internal investigation led by the firm's finance team.

Earlier this year the SDT also struck off ex-Ince & Co partner Andrew Iyer for defrauding his former firm of £3m of client money. Iyer was ordered to pay £11,671 in costs.