Shazia Anjum

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

Shazia Anjum, an unregistered barrister, faced 11 charges across three charge sheets. The first arose from her striking off as a solicitor in February 2021 (including SDT findings of dishonesty over improper transfers of client money and attempting to divert client funds from a frozen account) and her failure to report those proceedings and misconduct to the BSB. The second and third related to her practising as, and holding herself out as, a barrister and offering immigration/legal services on social media and her website when not authorised, despite a BSB warning. All charges were found proved in her absence. The Tribunal expressly noted the SDT's dishonesty findings and adopted them. She was disbarred on the first charge sheet, suspended 12 months on the second, and a consecutive 12 months on the third (24 months total), ordered to pay £3,480 costs, and the BSB was required not to issue her a practising certificate.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• Honesty
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Self-report to the regulator
• Report serious misconduct of others
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate and persistent public misrepresentation of her status as a barrister
• Misrepresentation potentially made to vulnerable people sought as clients
• Conduct over a prolonged period with multiple examples
• Disregard of an express BSB warning letter dated 21 May 2020
• No insight, remorse or engagement; wider pattern of disregard of professional obligations
• Prior findings of dishonesty by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, struck off the Roll of Solicitors