Law firm boss guilty of £600,000 fraud
A TRIO of Bradford solicitors, including the principal partner of the firm, have been convicted of conspiracy to defraud the Legal Aid Agency of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Sheffield Crown Court yesterday found Mohammed Ayub, the boss of the Bradford-based Chambers Solicitors firm and a former cancer research scientist, his brother Mohammed Riaz and former head of the Chambers immigration department Neil Frew, guilty of fraud to the tune of £600,000.
The trio used inflated invoices for interpretation services to defraud the Legal Aid Agency over several years, between September 2010 and October 2014. They claimed that interpreters were hired through an agency, Legal Support Services.
The agency’s “owner” Mohammed Riaz, was revealed to be the brother of Mohammed Ayub. It was not registered at Companies House and the address was in the same building as Chambers solicitors. Riaz also admitted not paying tax in 10 years.
Peter Mann, Head of CPS Yorkshire and Humberside’s Complex Casework Unit said:”This was a calculated, significant and systematic fraud on the Legal Aid Agency, carried out over a number of years. It is disgraceful that those who are themselves offering professional legal services should engage in a criminal conspiracy to cynically defraud a government agency of thousands of pounds. It seems that the motive was simple greed.
“Despite offering various implausible explanations, for their actions, its clear that today the jury has seen through their lies and have found all three guilty of conspiracy to defraud. This sends out a clear message that no one is above the law.”
Mohammed Ayub, of Aireville Drive, Shipley; Mohammed Riaz, of Southfield Square, Manningham; and Frew, of Hoyle Court Drive, Baildon, denied conspiracy to defraud. The trio will be sentenced in the new year.
