Indian lawyer disqualified in UK over sham marriages conviction

A 44-year-old man who qualified as a lawyer in India has been struck off from practicing in the UK by the solicitors’ watchdog after a tribunal heard of his conviction eight years ago for organising sham marriages for migrants to settle in Europe.

Mathew Moghan Rajamohan Chellam faced charges of fraudulent applications by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and a disciplinary tribunal concluded in its ruling that there was no doubt that he knew or ought to have known that his conduct was in material breach of the obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the legal profession.

In a judgment dated July 5 released recently, the tribunal noted that Chellam has since returned to India and that his current address in India was unknown.

“The Tribunal ordered that the Respondent, Mathew Moghan Rajamohan Chellam, solicitor, be struck off the Roll of Solicitors and it further ordered that he do pay the costs of and incidental to this application and enquiry fixed in the sum of £4,058.00,” reads the Tribunal order.

“In assessing culpability, the Tribunal took account of the fact that the Respondent’s motivation for the misconduct was for monetary gain, the fact that the misconduct arose from carefully planned actions including by using sham marriages with a view to abusing applicable laws, and that the circumstances giving rise to the misconduct were under the direct control of the Respondent and concluded that Respondent’s level of culpability was extremely high,” it notes.

According to the order filed with the UK’s Law Society, Chellam was admitted to the UK’s Roll of Solicitors in February 2013 through the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT) route as he was already a Legal Advocate in India.

In 2015, he is said to have “self-reported” and confirmed that he had been charged with criminal offences under the UK’s immigration legislation and that he was contesting those charges.

In September 2016, at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London, he was convicted of assisting unlawful immigration into a European Union (EU) member state, five counts of providing immigration advice and one count of seeking to obtain leave to remain in the UK by deception and was sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of eight years.

As a result, the tribunal concluded that Chellam, who was not represented at its hearing last month, had “caused tremendous harm to the reputation of the legal profession” and his misconduct “constituted various criminal offences”. He has now been struck off from practicing as a lawyer in the UK.

(PTI)