A solicitor has been sanctioned for ‘woeful’ supervision of a firm’s office which was filmed by undercover reporters as part of the Mail’s high-profile immigration sting.
Anbananden Sooben and his Ealing, west London firm Duncan Ellis Solicitors became subject to a forensic investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority after undercover reporters from the Mail newspaper, posing as economic migrants, filmed caseworker VP Lingajothy advising them in a manner that allegedly encouraged the falsification of facts to obtain asylum in the UK.
Lingajothy was an unadmitted employee of L&L Law and remained at its Colliers Wood branch after it was absorbed by Duncan Ellis in July 2023.
Following publication of the Mail’s article on 11 July that year, Sooben - who was the firm’s manager, COLP, and COFA - dismissed Lingajothy and the SRA intervened into the firm in February last year and referred Sooben to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Sooben was cleared of an allegation of dishonesty, where it was said he had failed to inform his insurer about the SRA investigation, but was found to have recklessly failed to supervise the Colliers Wood office.
The solicitor denied the allegation, stating he had attended the Colliers Wood office three days a week and that his approach to supervision ‘was to avoid micromanagement and to allow staff autonomy’. Sooben said he frequently sat in with Lingajothy during client interviews and especially remotely during the pandemic.
But the tribunal found there was no evidence of meaningful supervision of Lingajothy or his work at the Colliers Wood office.
In a judgment published on Monday, the SDT records: ‘The respondent’s supervision, as described in his evidence, was woeful and lacked substance and structure. There were no spot checks, no reviews of file volumes, no monitoring of invoices or billing practices, and no evidence of compliance oversight in areas such as client care, money laundering, or scope of work.
‘The respondent failed to provide support, guidance, or professional development to staff. There was no evidence of any attempt to set standards, identify challenges, or ensure regulatory compliance at the Colliers Wood Office’, the SDT found. ‘The tribunal concluded that the Colliers Wood office was effectively left to operate without interference or guidance from the respondent. This amounted to an abdication of responsibility rather than a delegation of duties.’
Sooben was suspended from practice for nine months from 20 August and was made subject to conditions on his practice for an indefinite period to commence on 20th May next year.
