The Solicitors Regulation Authority has stepped in to shut down a law firm run by two solicitors – one of whom is a Labour councillor and former mayor of a London borough.
In intervention notices published on Friday the SRA said it had closed Hounslow, west London-based SZ Solicitors Limited, an immigration specialist, and suspended the practising certificates of managers Raghwinder Singh Siddhu and Mohammad Saeed Zafar. Siddhu serves as Labour councillor for Bedfont in the London Borough of Hounslow and was mayor of Hounslow in 2022.
The SRA said in its intervention notices that Zafar and Siddhu, as managers of the firm, and the firm itself, failed to comply with the regulator’s code of conduct for firms, code of conduct for solicitors, RELs and RFLs and accounts rules. The regulator said ‘there is reason to suspect dishonesty on the part of Mr Zafar and of Mr Siddhu as managers of the firm in connection with the firm's business (paragraph 32(1)(d) of Schedule 2 to the Administration of Justice Act 1985 (as amended))’.
According to the firm's profile on Review Solicitors, its doors first opened in 2008. 'As humble beginnings go, we started as a sole practitioner in Hounslow, Greater London. Since then, we grew our business and later merged with QSS Solicitors to form a partnership under S Z Solicitors,' the profile says.
The Gazette approached Zafar and Siddhu for comment on Friday afternoon. Zafar said: ‘In my view SRA exercise of power to intervene is unjustified, it is misuse of power, intervention is uncalled for.’
Zafar said SZ Solicitors was a small high street firm and questioned why the regulator visited the firm seven times in 17 years. ‘There was no client complaint, no loss to clients' money, only a dispute with HM Revenue & Customs gave SRA opportunity to step in,’ Zafar said.
