An education adviser who lied to secure employment with a national firm has been banned from working with the profession. Umar Patel misled his employer, Simpson Millar, about holding a first-class law degree in order to obtain his job in October 2013.
He also created false medical certificates to explain his absences and instigated a call to the firm pretending to be his doctor.
Patel worked at the firm, which was trading as Maxwell Gillott in Lancaster, for two years and is not currently involved in legal practice.
A notice from the Solicitors Regulation Authority said Patel’s conduct had been found to be dishonest and he was in breach of two SRA principles.
He was made subject to an order preventing him from working for any regulated firm and ordered to pay a £2,000 fine and costs of £1,350. The order bans him from having any paid connection with a solicitor’s practice and can be lifted only with permission from the SRA.
