Solicitor hailed by Law Society for rags-to-riches story is struck off for tricking nurses out of tens of thousands of pounds

An award-winning solicitor lauded for her rags-to-riches rise has been struck off after she misled a group of nurses over the sale of a buy-to-let property.Julie Condliffe, 48, whose firm specialised in helping people to buy or sell property at auction, led the three nurses to believe they were buying the home in the north east as an investment.But Ms Condliffe, a property entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker, already owned the property and it was never transferred to the nurses. She then tried to claim the arrangement had always been for them to lease it, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard.Condliffe, a social mobility ambassador for the Law Society, had been approached by the nurses through the Zimbabwean community, where she was said to be well-known and influential.One of the nurses described her as 'famous amongst the Zimbabwean community'. But she misled the 'inexperienced investors' who were led to believe they were buying the freehold. The tribunal concluded she 'clearly exploited her professional status to promote the trust and credibility arising from being a qualified solicitor'. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that Julie Condliffe falsely told three nurses they were buying a residential property in the northeast for which they had paid a total of £31,000 Julie Condliffe in Law Society portrait It added: 'Ms Condliffe's misconduct had a significant impact on the wider community and, in particular, on the Zimbabwean women she claimed to be empowering. 'She caused significant damage to the reputation of the legal profession. The harm she caused was clearly foreseeable.'The tribunal heard that in 2018, she brokered a deal for the three nurses to buy a three-bedroom terraced house in Peterlee, Co Durham. They thought they were buying it to improve and sell on again for a quick return.But they did not know that her firm PropertyPro World Limited (PPW) owned the property and Condliffe never intended to sell it to them, regarding their money as securing only a lease with an option to purchase.The three friends handed over £27,999, a sourcing fee of £3,000 to PPW and spent £3,720 on renovations.Condliffe later sent messages suggesting the property was being transferred, including one text saying 'The property will be yours from tomorrow'.But the relationship broke down and in 2021 the investors issued county court proceedings which resulted in a settlement for £19,000.One of the nurses, Pawel Jaskolski, 42, a mental health nurse who specialises in ADHD and autism assessments, said he believed she targeted nurses as they were 'compassionate people'.Condliffe denied knowingly misleading the investors, saying she genuinely believed the property was a lease option purchase and that this had been an honest misunderstanding.She submitted a 2018 letter mentioning lease option purchase. But the Solicitors Regulation Authority, prosecuting, pointed out that the PPW registered office on the document was not occupied until 2020. The tribunal said this discrepancy 'gravely damaged Ms Condliffe's credibility'.Two charges relating to dishonesty were found proven, although she was cleared of a third of misleading investigators at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the body which polices the profession.Condliffe admitted a further charge over banking arrangements when Metro Bank closed her account, she switched to an unsuitable financial platform to hold and process clients' money.At one time it held more than £2.5million but had withdrawal limitations that put property deals, including one £1million-plus purchase, at risk.Condliffe, whose portrait hung for years in the offices of the Law Society, was struck off and ordered to pay £48,000 costs.According to Condliffe, she grew up destitute in Zimbabwe, the youngest of eight children.She never knew her father, who she claims was shot dead in the country's war of independence when she was a baby.Her mother moved the family to Harare, working for nothing for five years to acquire a ramshackle home.When the family's benefactor died, they were evicted and lost everything, apparently sparking Condliffe's childhood dream to become a lawyer to fight injustice.Her family was said to have scraped together £500 to send her to Britain to pursue her legal dream, fuelled by watching episodes of Ally McBeal through the window of a neighbour's house, in 1998.According to Condliffe, she had nothing, knew no one and, at one point, slept in a phone box.She worked in McDonald's in Watford and in care homes while studying nursing and then law at the University of Hertfordshire.She was first registered as a solicitor in 2012. Despite her childhood ordeal, she pitched herself as an eviction specialist, helping landlords get shot of stubborn tenants.Meanwhile, she claimed to have bought her first property in 2006 and then built up a portfolio of more than 30, worth more than £1million.Her apparent success led to recognition from the Law Society, the body representing the legal profession. A large, artfully shot portrait, in which she posed in profile wearing a boxing glove, was hung in its offices in London.In 2017, she was included in a list of the most influential Christians from Zimbabwe.She was living with her husband and three children in a four-bed detached modern home, worth about £350,000, in Rushden, Northants.Condliffe's law firm, Creative Legal Solutions, was awarded Best Boutique Auction Law Firm 2022 and Specialist Solicitor of the Year 2022 in the SME News legal awards.She has several thousand followers on social media, largely from the Zimbabwean community.The Law Society distanced itself from its former poster girl, saying: 'The Law Society Social Mobility Ambassador scheme ended in 2023. 'Julie Condliffe is not a current social mobility ambassador, having previously served in the role from 2017 until 2020. Her portrait is not displayed in the Law Society building.'Condliffe did not respond to repeated requests to comment but last year she gave a series of online interviews to promote her book in which she admitted to making mistakes but claimed her 'dream to be taken away by a social media smear campaign'.In another video she said she had hundreds of satisfied customers and only a handful of complainants.In her book, Unbreakable, she writes: 'There was a time I was breaking barriers in law - a Black woman solicitor, bestselling author, mentor, and voice for the voiceless. I no longer practise law. I practise truth.'