A solicitor has been disbarred for falsely claiming to have worked 28 hours a day to secure a substantial bonus of nearly £70,000. Samina Ahmed, a legal aid solicitor, manipulated her time records by consistently overstating her hours worked, including asserting that she had surpassed 24 hours in a day for 133 days. Despite being cautioned about her deceitful actions, Ahmed persisted in inflating her hours. Consequently, she has been removed from practice and directed to pay £5,000 in expenses by the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal, which deemed her reported hours as unfeasible.
Having specialized in prison law, Ahmed’s services were funded by the Legal Aid Agency, with her responsibilities encompassing mentoring new legal professionals. Between July 2021 and June 2022, she documented hours on the company’s system that exceeded her actual workload, sometimes logging more hours than exist in a day.
Over a span of 266 days, Ahmed recorded 7,511.70 hours, averaging over 28 hours daily, with 133 instances of exceeding 24 hours in a day. Following an April 2022 meeting where her misconduct was addressed, she persisted in falsifying her time entries to maximize her bonus potential, which could have reached £69,300 at Tuckers Solicitors.
The Legal Aid Agency covered the expenses for the purported hours worked by Ahmed, amounting to £98,093, necessitating reimbursement by Tuckers Solicitors. Upon continued deception post-meeting discovery, Ahmed was terminated and faced the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal, resulting in her disbarment and a £5,000 penalty. The Tribunal determined that Ahmed had acted dishonestly and lacked integrity in fabricating time entries beyond completed tasks, breaching public trust and tarnishing the profession’s reputation. Ahmed, a single parent to three children, argued that her current income from an apprentice role at Wigan Council was insufficient to meet expenses, despite having previously worked in retail. The Tribunal acknowledged her financial constraints but deemed her actions severe, justifying the disbarment decision.
By choosing Daily Mirror as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News, you can access news content promptly.