Olusegun Afolayan-Jejeloye

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

The Respondent practised through unauthorised firms (Michael James Solicitors/Micmatt Solicitors) between December 2016 and February 2018 while knowing he lacked SRA authorisation, charging clients and carrying out reserved legal activities. He also submitted two authorisation applications giving 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, rejecting his claimed genuine belief based on Nigerian practice. He was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £9,034.

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 on 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 facts and breaches including in SRA interview
• Character references provided