Chinyere Inyama
Allegation / charges
Code of Conduct for Solicitors, REL's & RFL's 2019, SRA Principles 2019
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Mr Inyama, a solicitor and Senior Coroner for the West London coroner area, was the subject of a police investigation into historic allegations of rape and sexual assault of a former client. During a 9 November 2021 call with the Chief Coroner's Office, he described the allegations as two incidents of "touching up," materially minimising their nature and seriousness. The Tribunal found he had deliberately provided inaccurate and misleading information to hide his embarrassment, breaching Principles 2, 4 and 5 and paragraph 1.4 of the Code, and made an express finding of dishonesty. Exceptional circumstances were rejected and he was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay £15,000 costs.
Duties found breached:
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
- No conflict between current clients
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
Aggravating factors:
- Proven dishonesty in material breach of obligation to protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession
- Conduct, though spontaneous, was deliberate and calculated
- Made a conscious decision during the call to underplay the seriousness of the allegations
- Extremely experienced solicitor and senior judicial office holder fully aware of his obligations
- Caused significant harm to the reputation of the profession
Mitigating factors:
- Single episode of brief duration
- Self-reported the matter to the SRA following his dismissal
Codes & rules applied
Duties engaged
- Act only on proper, lawful instructions
- Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
- Client-care and engagement terms
- Client confidentiality
- Competence
- Complaints procedure and handling
- Comply with and respect court orders
- Comply with rules of foreign jurisdictions
- Continuity and handover of representation
- Cooperate openly with regulators
- Costs and fee transparency to client
- Diligence and timeliness
- Disclose adverse law to the court
- Disclose material information to client
- Disclose referrals, commissions and benefits
- Fair dealing with unrepresented parties
- Fair, reasonable and lawful fees
- Full disclosure on ex parte applications
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Honour professional undertakings
- Keep client informed and respond promptly
- Maintain competence and CPD
- Manage conflict arising mid-matter
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- No acting against a former client
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
- No conflict between current clients
- No direct dealing with represented party
- No improper benefit, loan or bequest
- No improper communication with the court
- No improper fee-sharing or partnership
- No improper questioning of witnesses
- No improper solicitation or touting
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- No obstruction or victimisation of reporters
- No own-interest conflict
- No payments to witnesses on evidence
- No personal opinion or familiarity with court
- No prejudicial publicity for pending cases
- No standing bail or surety for client
- No taking unfair advantage
- No tampering with or coaching witnesses
- Not mislead the court
- Not mislead third parties or opponents
- Not misrepresent regulated status
- Pay instructed practitioners and agents
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Proper basis for allegations
- Proper termination and return of instructions
- Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
- Prosecutorial fairness and impartiality
- Protect capacity and vulnerable clients
- Protect legal professional privilege
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Safeguard documents and limit liens
- Self-report to the regulator
- Truthful, non-misleading advertising