A consultant solicitor described by a judge as a ‘dishonest fraudster’ who 'consistently lied' to the court has been struck off the roll.
District Judge Gilmore assessed in a judgment from 2022 that Gboyega Okunniga had ‘entirely fabricated’ the existence of a merger involving his consultancy business to explain payments into a personal bank account.
The ruling led to a prosecution at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, where Okunniga denied wrongdoing. But the tribunal found him an unreliable witness who had seriously damaged the reputation of the profession by knowingly and repeatedly acting dishonestly.
Okunniga, admitted in 2010, was working as a consultant solicitor with Coventry firm Clifton Law Limited, which was insured to practise in limited areas of work. In 2019, he issued invoices to clients which were not authorised by the firm. A dispute between Okunniga and the firm over his share of the fees led to enforcement proceedings issued by the solicitor to recover around £9,600. The firm disputed the entirety of the debt and counterclaimed for £34,000.
The district judge found that Okunniga had instructed the clients to make nine payments in total for legal services directly into his private bank account. He submitted that the payments were for a separate business ‘merger’ outside of his employment between the clients’ company and his own consultancy business. The court rejected this explanation and awarded the firm almost £23,000 on the counterclaim, with the district judge finding that both Okunniga and his wife had lied during the enforcement proceedings.
Before the tribunal, Okunniga submitted that the payments were not made into a personal account but into a company account intended to be used for business purposes, and that this arrangement was open, documented and consensual. The tribunal found he had sought to fabricate the existence of a merger during the enforcement proceedings to explain the payments.
The tribunal ruled that the solicitor had issued invoices without his firm’s approval for excessive amounts. He had also signed letters to other clients calling himself ‘head of international trade and arbitration’, knowing the firm was not authorised to carry out this type of work.
Okunniga was struck off and ordered to pay £10,000 costs.
