A Zimbabwean-born lawyer in the United Kingdom has been struck off the roll of solicitors after a disciplinary tribunal found that she dishonestly misled three Zimbabwean nurses over a property investment worth more than £31,000.
Julie Condliffe, 48, who was admitted as a solicitor in the UK in 2012, came to the attention of the investors through the Zimbabwean community, where she was regarded as a well known and influential figure. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that she used the trust associated with her professional position to give credibility to the property investment.
The three nurses entered into arrangements with Condliffe in 2018 concerning a residential property in County Durham owned by PropertyPro World Limited, a company of which she was then the sole director. They believed they were purchasing the property, with £28,000 going towards the intended purchase, a further £3,000 paid as a sourcing fee and additional money spent on renovations.
However, the property was never transferred to the investors. The tribunal found that Condliffe subsequently described the arrangement as a residential purchase lease option and repeated that explanation to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and later to the court when the investors launched civil proceedings.
One of the investors told the tribunal that she believed Condliffe was representing them after helping arrange the investment. Condliffe also presented herself as a specialist solicitor who would handle the transaction. In one message to the investors, she indicated that the property would soon be theirs.
The dispute eventually reached the county court in 2021 and was settled with a payment of £19,000 to the investors. Condliffe denied deliberately misleading them, maintaining that she genuinely believed the arrangement was a lease option purchase and that any confusion had resulted from an honest misunderstanding.
The tribunal rejected her explanation. It found that her conduct was dishonest and that a document relied upon in her defence contained an address for PropertyPro World that was not occupied by the company until 2020, seriously damaging her credibility.
The tribunal said her misconduct had a significant impact on the wider community, particularly the Zimbabwean women she claimed to be empowering, and damaged the reputation of the legal profession.
Condliffe was struck off and ordered to pay almost £48,000 in costs. Her former London law firm, Creative Legal Solutions, had also been shut down by the SRA in 2025.
