After receiving complaints about the practice’s conveyancing department, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigated the firm and uncovered ‘significant’ accounting irregularities.
The company falsely filed Stamp Duty Land Transfer returns with the Land Registry, allowed unqualified members to manage the practice, had inadequate controls to prevent fraud and did not keep proper accounts.
The failure to keep up-to-date accounts prevented the SRA from discovering how and when the shortfall of £8m in the client account occurred and where the money went.
This led the tribunal to describe the activity as ‘the most serious case it had ever dealt with’. More than 2,500 clients were affected by the fraudulent activity resulting a £13m pay-out from the Solicitors Compensation Fund.
The practice was closed in December 2009 and was formally put into administration in February 2010.
The actions of two of the defendants, Mr Saddique and Mr Cardinali, were singled out by the Judge, HHJ Bird, who said: “The defendants involved themselves in a business in which members of the public are entitled to place absolute trust.
“That trust was abused at great cost to members of the public and at great cost to the SRA and to the Solicitors Compensation Fund.
“Fraud of the kind which was rife under their management in my judgment justifies a disqualification period of the maximum that the law allows, that is the period of 15 years.”
The rulings, some of which took place in 2012 and 2013, were;
• Mr Nasir Ilyas – undertaking accepted for 15 years on 6 June 2014;
• Mr Waseem Saddique – disqualified by court order on 10 June 2014 for 15 years;
• Mr Mario Cardinali – disqualified by court order on 10 June 2014 for 15 years;
• Mr Imran Hussain – undertaking accepted for 9 years on 4 June 2013;
• Mr Bilal Khawaja – undertaking accepted for 6 years on 13 June 2013;
• Ms Helen Murgatroyd – undertaking accepted for 5 years on 24 February 2012;
• Mr Shabbir – undertaking accepted for 5 years on 24 January 2013;
The SRA was praised for its swift intervention which the tribunal said helped to mitigate the extent of the risk to the firm’s clients.
