Wahid Nazari
Allegation / charges
Criminal Convictions
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Solicitor was convicted at Lewes Crown Court of three counts of using a disabled Blue Badge (issued to a family member) with intent to deceive, having used it to park near his workplace on nine occasions over an eight-week period. The Tribunal relied on the conviction as conclusive proof and found breaches of Principles 2 and 6, and expressly found his conduct dishonest under the Ivey test. Despite an early admission of dishonesty, he resiled from it at the hearing claiming an honest mistake. The Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances to depart from the usual strike-off for dishonesty, ordering him struck off the Roll and to pay costs of £1,000 (reduced from £3,980 claimed, having regard to limited means). His subsequent High Court appeal was dismissed.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Conduct was dishonest
- Offences were deliberate, calculated and continued over a period (nine occasions over c.eight weeks)
- Concealment was integral to the offence (removed Blue Badge when parking officials approached)
- Respondent ought to have known he was in breach of professional obligations
- Limited insight - backed away from earlier admission of dishonesty
Mitigating factors:
- Self-reported to the SRA and co-operated fully
- Made admissions at an early stage
- Previously unblemished career
- No financial gain and no loss to any individual
- Difficult personal/family circumstances supported by medical evidence