Mathew Moghan Rajamohan Chellam

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Respondent, admitted to the Roll on 1 February 2013, was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 12 September 2016 of assisting unlawful immigration into an EU member state (s.25(1) Immigration Act 1971), five counts of providing immigration advice/services while not qualified (s.91 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999), and seeking leave to remain by deception (s.24A(1)(a) Immigration Act 1971), receiving a total of eight years imprisonment. The conduct involved fraudulent residence card applications using sham marriages, providing immigration services before he was admitted/qualified, and falsely claiming a genuine marriage to an EEA national. The Tribunal proceeded in his absence and found all three allegations proved (Outcome 11.1 not pursued). It found breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6, with extremely high culpability and tremendous harm to the profession's reputation. The Tribunal found a lack of integrity under Principle 2; although the sentencing judge described lying under oath, the Tribunal made no express finding of dishonesty.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct constituted various criminal offences
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated, continuing over a period of time
• Respondent concealed his wrongdoing, including before the jury
• Respondent knew or ought to have known his conduct breached obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• Motivation was monetary gain
• Use of sham marriages and carefully planned actions

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent self-reported that he had been charged with criminal offences
• Some delay occurred, primarily caused by the criminal proceedings
• No previous disciplinary findings