Naseem Yousef

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

Naseem Yousef, admitted 2000, held a Practising Certificate subject to conditions (requiring OSS-approved employment and that any employer be informed of the conditions) in force from 24 October 2002 to 8 July 2003. While working on a freelance/self-employed basis for Malik & Malik, she acted as a solicitor (including representing a client at an immigration appeal) without OSS approval and without informing the firm of her conditions. The Tribunal found all three allegations substantiated and expressly found she had behaved dishonestly, applying the Twinsectra v Yardley test. She was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £2,453.28. (A separate earlier hearing in April 2004 had resulted in a reprimand and £6,500 costs for accounts rules breaches.)

Duties found breached:

• Hold a current practising certificate

Aggravating factors:

• Made a conscious decision to act in breach of known conditions on her Practising Certificate
• Gave contradictory accounts about whether she had informed the firm of her conditions
• Concealed the conditions from the firm because she feared she would not get the work if they knew

Mitigating factors:

• Qualified as a solicitor at a mature age and was relatively inexperienced
• Accepted to a degree as a victim of the nefarious activities of Dixit Shah and the Brandons Group
• Was unemployed and without income, desperate for paid work
• Single parent
• Variation of the conditions went some way to mitigate her position