INTERNAL PROBE: brother slams 'amateurish' commission


The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is to review its investigations and auditing processes following the suicide of a solicitor who had been the subject of a four-year fraud probe.



Ranee Bassi, 50, hanged herself in her Birmingham office on 29 May, leaving behind a husband and three young sons. Her practice, Bassi Solicitors, was investigated for fraud after two audits in 2001 raised concerns she may have claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal aid for invented clients.



Her brother Mandeep Bassi, a 43-year-old solicitor with Birmingham firm GQS Solicitors, told the Gazette he was in no doubt that the investigation pushed his sister to take her own life and slammed the LSC probe as 'amateurish'.



'The LSC said she was making up clients, she was doing a lot of asylum work, and they knocked on doors [to check identities]. As anyone who has worked in this area will know, relatives and friends will deny their existence - the clients themselves will often give false addresses - because they fear being arrested or deported,' he said.



Ms Bassi was forced to re-mortgage her home and survive on handouts and bank loans to keep her business afloat while the LSC cut payments.



Immigration and medical documents eventually vindicated her, but the family says Ms Bassi never recovered. Her brother said they would pursue the LSC because 'we don't want them to do this to anybody else.'



An LSC spokesman said it was saddened by the news of Ms Bassi's death and offered its condolences. He added: 'Because of the circumstances surrounding Ms Bassi's death, the LSC will undertake a thorough internal review of how investigations and audits were conducted into Bassi Solicitors and other firms in similar circumstances at the time.'



Anita Rice