Naveen Sagar

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

Naveen Sagar, a solicitor and partner at Mehra & Co, was convicted at Kingston Crown Court on his guilty pleas of three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, one count of conspiracy to obtain property by deception, one count of false accounting and one count of contempt of court, and originally sentenced to 14.5 years' imprisonment (reduced on appeal to 10 years). His offending included producing false witnesses to reclaim cash seized from criminal clients, submitting false interpreter invoices to the Legal Services Commission, falsifying a letter to the Inland Revenue, and photographing a jury during a murder trial. The Tribunal proceeded in his absence, found him to be a disgrace to the profession, struck him off the Roll and ordered him to pay £5,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Breathtaking criminality and blatant breach of professional conduct rules and criminal law
• Very serious criminal offences resulting in lengthy imprisonment
• Severe damage to reputation of and public trust in the profession
• Solicitor was in the public eye