Farzana Akram

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

Barrister Farzana Akram was convicted in March 2022 (guilty pleas) of fraudulent evasion of income tax, national insurance contributions and VAT totalling over £108,000 spanning 2007-2016, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment suspended for two years plus a curfew. A Disciplinary Tribunal, sitting in her absence, found all six charges proved: four arising from the fraud convictions (Group A dishonesty, criminal standard applied) and two for failing to report to the BSB that she had been charged and convicted (civil standard, absolute offences). The Tribunal found the fraud charges at the upper range of seriousness with no exceptional circumstances to depart from disbarment. It imposed immediate disbarment on each of the first four charges and no separate sanction on charges 5 and 6, plus £750 costs payable within 28 days.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Self-report to the regulator

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty continued over a long period (2007-2022)
• Significant amount of money involved (over £108,282.41)
• Dishonesty was calculated - invented income figures repeatedly presented to HMRC
• Significant personal benefit (though frittered on gambling)
• Likely adverse effect on others in Chambers and damage to Chambers' reputation
• Attempted to lay blame on others including her accountant
• Sole responsibility and control over circumstances; harm was foreseeable
• Failure to report involved an element of concealment

Mitigating factors:

• Ill health referenced (though no medical evidence produced to the Tribunal and it was not a defence in the Crown Court)