Fernandes clinches settlement over fraud allegations

High-profile solicitor Maria Fernandes - who is married to former government minister Keith Vaz - has won a substantial settlement from the Mail on Sunday after it printed untrue allegations about her.

In the article, London sole practitioner Ms Fernandes, until last year a member of the Law Society Council, was alleged to have bypassed proper procedures for British passport applications to enable one of her clients, who was facing a criminal fraud prosecution, to obtain a passport.

The paper also claimed in the article that she had told a parliamentary inquiry that the person responsible for the filing of accounting records for Mapesbury Communications was a deceased male when in truth it was her former female personal assistant who was alive and available to give evidence.

A statement read out in court

by Ms Fernandes's lawyer, London based solicitor-advocate David Price, said the article caused her 'considerable hurt and upset' given that

she 'values her professional reputation'.

The paper now accepts that

the article was incorrect and has printed an apology and will be paying legal costs and 'substantial' damages.

Victoria MacCallum