Olusegun Afolayan-Jejeloye

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

The Respondent practised as a sole practitioner through unauthorised firms (Michael James Solicitors Limited / Micmatt Solicitors) between December 2016 and February 2018, knowing he lacked SRA authorisation, and made two authorisation applications giving false future commencement dates when he had already begun providing legal services. The Tribunal found both allegations proved beyond reasonable doubt, including express findings of dishonesty under the Ivey test. It rejected his claimed genuine belief based on Nigerian practice. Given the sustained, deliberate misconduct and dishonesty in dealings with the regulator, and no exceptional circumstances, the only appropriate sanction was strike-off. Costs of £9,034.00 were ordered (reduced from £9,424.00).

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty proved
• Breach of the criminal law (LSA 2007)
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated; forward dating of forms a deliberate decision to mislead the SRA
• Misconduct continued over more than 12 months
• Respondent knew he was in material breach of obligations

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary matters
• Made admissions to the facts and breaches, including in interview with the SRA
• Character references provided