England: Immigration solicitor fined £60,000 for useless appeals

England: Immigration solicitor fined £60,000 for useless appeals

An immigration solicitor has been handed a £60,000 fine for bringing dozens of useless removal appeals, The Law Society Gazette reports.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal penalised Syed Wasif Ali and banned him indefinitely from making any further judicial review applications.

Mr Ali, formerly of north-west London firm Harrow Solicitors, acted recklessly by abusing the immigration system, the tribunal found.

He would make an immigration application for migrants who faced removal to their countries of origin while also applying for a fee waiver.

These applications, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said, were poorly drafted and almost always cited article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights even though none of Mr Ali’s clients faced no threat of detention.

Lane J said his approach was “fundamentally misconceived”.

The SRA submitted that his claims reiterated the ‘same generic, irrelevant, poorly drafted submissions’ found in pre-action protocol letters.

Mr Ali admitted misconduct apart from recklessness.

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