A solicitor who was convicted of distributing an indecent video of a child and possessing three extreme pornographic images has been struck off the roll.
Sohail Bashir, admitted in May 2008, was practising as a consultant solicitor at Allied Law Chambers Solicitors Ltd until March 2024. He was arrested in August 2020 before appearing before Manchester magistrates court where he admitted distributing an indecent photograph, a category B video of a child, and possessing three extreme pornographic images which ‘portrayed, in an explicit and realistic way’, images ‘that were grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character’.
Following his guilty pleas, Bashir was committed to Bolton Crown court for sentence in July 2024. He was subsequently sentenced to six-months imprisonment, suspended for two years; 180 hours unpaid work; 30 days of rehab and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.
In a judgment on an agreed outcome, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said the Solicitors Regulation Authority had been alerted to Bashir’s conduct in May 2024 following a report made by an external consultant instructed by the firm. The following day, Bashir notified the SRA he had entered a guilty plea and sentencing had been adjourned.
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The SDT said: ‘The respondent was sentenced for these offences at the Crown court at Bolton on 25 July 2024. Within the sphere of regulatory and disciplinary conduct there could be no mitigation to minimise the harm.
‘The respondent’s misconduct could only be viewed as extremely serious and no sanction less than a strike off would be sufficient to protect the public and the reputation of the profession.’
Bashir was struck off the roll and ordered to pay £2,680 costs.
