Mathew Moghan Rajamohan Chellam

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

The Respondent, a solicitor admitted via the QLTT route, was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court in September 2016 of assisting unlawful immigration into an EU member state, five counts of providing unqualified immigration advice/services, and obtaining leave to remain by deception via a sham marriage, receiving an eight-year prison sentence. The SRA brought three allegations based on the convictions. The Tribunal proceeded in the Respondent's absence, found all allegations proved (breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6), and assessed culpability as extremely high. While the convictions involved fraud and deception and the Tribunal found a lack of integrity, no express finding of dishonesty was recorded. The Respondent was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £4,058.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct constituted various criminal offences
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated, repeated and 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
• Conduct motivated by monetary gain involving sham marriages
• No insight, remorse or regret
• Conviction attracted nationwide media attention

Mitigating factors:

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