Former executives of closed firm Axiom Ince, including its former chief executive and director, today denied various counts of fraud, conspiracy to use false instrument and conspiracy to conceal, destroy or dispose of documents.
All five former executives appeared at Southwark Crown Court this morning for a case management hearing before His Honour Judge Baumgartner, recorder of Westminster.
Axiom Ince’s former chief executive and director Pragnesh Modhwadia, 42, appeared alongside co-director Shyam Mistry, 35, chief financial officer Muhammad Ali, 42, chief technology officer Rupesh Karawadra, 40, and vice president of IT Jayesh Anjaria, 46.
Solicitors Modhwadia and Mistry denied two counts of fraud by abuse of position; one count of conspiracy to use false instrument in which they are alleged to have conspired together and with others to use instruments which were false and which they knew or believed to be false with the intention of inducing Solicitors Regulation Authority employees to accept them as genuine; and a fourth count of conspiracy to conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of documents which he knew or suspected were or would be relevant to an investigation.
Karawadra denied conspiracy to use false instruments and conspiracy to conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of documents, and Jayesh Anjaria denied conspiracy to conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of documents.
Ali denied two counts of fraud by abuse of position and a third count of conspiracy to use false instruments at an earlier hearing.
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The trial is listed for February 2027. A ‘rough and ready’ eight-to-10-week prediction ‘might have been an underestimate’, the court was told. The court heard there are 260,000 pages of exhibits so far. A further case management hearing is expected in October this year. All five defendants have been released on conditional bail.
Axiom Ince had offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester. The firm ceased trading in October 2023 after the SRA intervened. A previous court hearing was told that more than £60m had been taken out of client funds at the firm.
