Decision record
Babita Attra
Allegation / charges
Criminal Convictions
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
While practising as a consultant solicitor at Carson Kaye Solicitors conducting criminal Legal Aid work, the Respondent was responsible for submitting prior authority claims to the Legal Aid Agency for translation of case papers into Romanian. In conjunction with AM (her partner, who owned translation company MT), she obtained authority based on grossly inflated word counts, ensured MT received the work and submitted false/bogus quotes, resulting in overclaims of around £62,885.64 against the LAA. She was convicted on 22 January 2020 at Inner London Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud, concealing/converting/transferring criminal property, and making a false instrument, and sentenced to a 24-month suspended sentence plus unpaid work. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by agreed outcome, found the misconduct so serious (a conviction for dishonesty) that strike off was appropriate, with no exceptional circumstances. Struck off and ordered to pay £337.50 costs (limited given her means).
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Misconduct involved commission of criminal offences of dishonesty
- Misconduct continued over 11 months
- Respondent knew or ought reasonably to have known conduct was in material breach of obligations
- Significant impact upon the firm and the LAA
- Abuse of position of trust; leading role with high culpability
Mitigating factors:
- Genuine insight and remorse
- Open and frank admissions at an early stage and cooperation with the SRA
- No adverse regulatory history