An Indian solicitor has been struck off for conning the British government by organising ‘sham marriages’ to help immigrants get into the UK.
Mathew Chellam was paid ‘handsomely’ for his ‘corrupt services’ helping people apply for residency despite not having the correct qualifications.
The 53-year-old was said to have ‘spun a veritable web of lies and deceits’ in which he provided a package of ‘false and fictitious’ evidence to the Home Office.
Chellam, who was jailed in 2016, has now been struck off after a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) found his actions caused ‘tremendous harm to the reputation of the legal profession’.
The SDT panel heard that Chellam worked as a legal advocate in India. In 2013, after applying for a Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme, he was admitted to the UK roll of solicitors.
The tribunal heard that between April 2011 and August 2014, Chellam made fraudulent applications to the Home Office for Non-EEA (European Economic Area) residence permits with the intention of assisting unlawful immigration.
An Indian solicitor, who advised his countrymen on how to get into the UK by deceiving the Home Office, has now been struck off after being jailed for eight years (file photo)
Between October 2012 and January 2013, the solicitor provided immigration advice and services when he was not qualified to do so.
To offer advice, solicitors must be registered with the Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC), however, Chellam was not.
He also sought to avoid his removal from the UK when his leave to remain ended by telling the Home Office that he was in a genuine marriage to a European national.
Following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in 2016, he was handed an eight year jail sentence after a judge condemned the solicitor for his ‘misleading’ and ‘deceitful’ behaviour.
Chellam made bogus applications for residence pemits on behalf of illegal immigrants he advised as ‘clients’ through Mathew Moghan & Co Advocates.
The lawyer submitted false paperwork to the Home Office, including fake birth certificates and wage slips from sham cleaning companies.
Chellam also arranged bogus weddings between Indian and French nationals, apparently taking place in Ghana.
Ghanaian law recognises ‘customary marriages’ by proxy – in which the bride and/or the groom are not even required to attend.
Chellam’s handwriting was found on a documents in a series of police raids in 2014, including one at the Maamala Restaurant in High Street North in Manor Park, East London.
Chellam was jailed at Snaresbrook Crown Court (pictured)
Two secret offices were found at the rear of the restaurant where immigration records were seized bearing his law firm’s letter-head.
Also found were forged Ghanaian birth certificates along with genuine French identity documents.
Chellam was found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration to a member state, five counts of providing immigration advice without being qualified and seeking leave to remain by deception following trial earlier this month.
KFC worker Venkataramana Enugu, 31, and 30-year old Jeykrishnan Murugesan were also convicted of seeking leave to remain by deception after being arrested in connection with the investigation.
Both Indian nationals had submitted applications on the basis of being in relationships with French women, along with wage slips purporting to prove they were employed by one of the cleaning companies. All three applied through Chellam.
The court heard that Chellam organised ‘sham marriages between otherwise illegal immigrants and EU nationals’ to breach immigration controls.
He carried out an ‘exploitation of the relatively informal arrangements which apply to customary marriages and proxy wedding ceremonies in Ghana’.
His aim was to ‘abuse the UK immigration laws on the pretext that there was some kind of spousal connection’.
It was heard that the solicitor was also ‘exploiting the rules’ by creating ‘fiction’ that his clients were eligible to remain in the United Kingdom as extended family members.
The crown court heard that his method was ‘sophisticated’ and that he ‘spun a veritable web of lies and deceits’.
Judge Oscar Del Fabbro told Snaresbrook Crown Court: ‘A serious aggravating feature of these offences of which you have been unanimously convicted is that you were a lawyer at the time – purporting to provide legal services to clients who no doubt were paying handsomely for your corrupt services.’
Now, after the SDT hearing, Chellam has been struck off the register.
In discussing Chellam offering immigration advice without the qualifications to do so, the panel said: ‘Such conduct is a fundamental affront to a rule designed to safeguard the fairness and justice of proceedings by ensuring that only those who are subject to appropriate regulatory oversight are able to act on behalf of a potentially vulnerable class of consumers of legal services.’
They added: ‘A solicitor acting with integrity would not have committed a crime repeatedly. The gravity of the offence was reflected in the [Mr Chellam’s] custodial sentence.
‘The trust that the public places in solicitors, and in the provision of legal services, depends upon the reputation of the solicitors’ profession as one in which every member may be trusted to the ends of the earth.
‘The conviction of a solicitor for a serious criminal offence leading to the imposition of a custodial sentence and attracting adverse publicity undermines the trust that the public places in solicitors and the provision of legal services.’
He was struck off the Roll of Solicitors and has also been ordered to pay £4,058 in costs.
