The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has launched a High Court action against a London solicitor to recoup £400,000 of legal aid fees, the Gazette learned this week.


Olutayo Olaniran Arowojolu, a partner at Tayo Arowojolu in Seven Sisters, was contracted to provide general civil and criminal work. The LSC claims he received £403,378 for which he carried out no work, or for which he has failed to provide bills to back up his claim for the money paid on account.



The LSC allows solicitors to be paid money on account providing they subsequently claim for the work and it is assessed as payable.



The alleged imbalance between payments and claims was revealed in an audit of Mr Arowojolu's files. The LSC terminated the firm's contract in November 2006.



An LSC spokesman said it had a duty to ensure taxpayers' money is properly managed, given that its budget is used to fund advice for vulnerable people.



Mr Arowojolu denied the claim and said the 20 sample files looked at during the audit were not indicative of the 5,000 files he had worked on. He added that the figure claimed by the LSC was grossly exaggerated.



Catherine Baksi