The Solicitors Regulation Authority has ordered a restriction on where and how two former law firm employees, who misappropriated hundreds of thousands of pounds from their firms, can work.
The employees, who worked at different firms, have been handed a Section 43 order and ordered to pay the SRA’s costs.
The regulator said it was ‘undesirable’ for either Canan Oztas or Mazamal Ali Sharif ‘to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior approval’.
Oztas was employed as a costs negotiator/accounts by Wood Green, London firm Miya Limited from January 2018 to April 2022. Her role allowed her to make payments of up to £10,000 without approval from others in the firm.
A forensic investigation commissioned by the SRA found that between 19 January 2018 to 25 May 2022, Oztas made 182 improper payments totalling £744,305.67 from the firm’s bank account to her own. The money had been paid by clients for costs and/or disbursements.
Of the 182 payments, 147 were requested and authorised by Oztas, and 23 were requested and authorised by a now former accounts assistant at the firm, at the request of Oztas. The remaining 12 were requested and co-authorised by Oztas and a director of Miya.
The SRA said: ‘There is no suggestion or allegation that the assistant or the co-director provided knowing assistance to Ms Oztas or connived or conspired with her in any way.’
Explaining its decision, the SRA said the order was necessary ‘because of the serious nature of her conduct, which included acting dishonesty’. Oztas was also ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £600.
Sharif worked at Aston Bond Law Limited, based in Slough, Berks, as a bookkeeper and legal cashier from July 2014 until June 2018. The firm, which was a recognised body when Sharif worked there, ended Sharif’s employment after discovering he misappropriated money from the firm’s client and office accounts.
The SRA found between April 2017 and June 2018, Sharif misappropriated £347,917.79 from the firm’s client and office bank accounts and attempted to conceal from the firm that he had done so.
Aston Bond Law Limited issued proceedings against Sharif in the High Court and in 2019 obtained judgment for £353,093.58 which included the amount Sharif was found to have misappropriated from the firm’s accounts as well as £5,175.79 in interest.
The SRA said Sharif was found to be dishonest and his conduct posed ‘serious risks…to the public and to others regulated by the SRA’.
It added: 'Mr Sharif’s conduct meant that it was undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior approval'.
Sharif was also ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £600.
