A former managing partner of a Bradford solicitors’ firm, who was sent to prison for creating a fictitious business to fraudulently claim thousands of pounds from the Legal Aid Agency, has been struck off.

Between September 2010 and October 2014, he conspired to create a sham company – known as Legal Support Services (LSS) – to claim expenses from the Legal Aid Agency for providing interpreters for immigration and asylum contract work. The loss to the agency was believed to be between £194,000 and £234,000.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Mohammed Ayub, sole equity partner at Chambers Solicitors, had accepted that his misconduct was such that neither a reprimand nor a fine or suspension would be a sufficient sanction. Ayub’s business partner Neil Frew, who received a suspended prison sentence for his part in the fraud, was also struck off.

(Source – Law Society Gazette)