Former solicitor of Nasir Jamshed ordered to pay £40,000 fine for dishonesty

LONDON: Nasir Jamshaid’s former UK solicitor, Shahid Ali of Osborne Knight Solicitors, has been fined £40,000, along with £30,000 in legal costs, by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after being found guilty of dishonesty and serious professional misconduct in his handling of client funds and his communications during Mr Jamshaid’s criminal proceedings.

Ali represented Jamshaid following his 2017 arrest by the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) in connection with the 2016 Pakistan Super League corruption investigation. Jamshaid, a former Pakistan international cricketer, was later sentenced to 17 months’ imprisonment after changing his plea to guilty in December 2019 during a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

The complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) was brought by Dr Samara Afzal, Jamshaid’s wife. The Tribunal heard that during an NCA search of Dr Afzal’s home, approximately £5,500 in cash was seized and later returned to Ali in September 2017.

Ali failed to record this money in a client ledger and retained possession of it for nearly two years, while repeatedly denying to Jamshaid and Dr Afzal that he had received it.

The Tribunal also heard that in October 2019, Jamshaid handed Ali a further £15,000 in cash, in the presence of his wife, believing it was for legal fees.

It later emerged that Jamshaid’s criminal case was funded by legal aid. Ali’S defence stated that this money was given to him by his client for safekeeping.

The tribunal found that Ali provided misleading explanations regarding the purpose of this money and admitted under cross-examination that his earlier statements, which were recorded by Dr Afzal, were untrue. Neither sum was properly recorded in client accounts, in breach of the Solicitors Accounts Rules 2011 and 2019.

The Tribunal concluded that Ali provided misleading information to Dr Afzal about the whereabouts and purpose of the funds and ruled that his conduct was dishonest by the standards of ordinary, decent people.

The judgment stated that Ali had failed to return client money promptly, failed to maintain proper accounting records, and committed numerous breaches of professional obligations.

Evidence before the Tribunal included audio recordings and documents showing that Ali gave the misleading impression that he was in contact with third parties to recover the cash returned by the NCA, when in fact he had been holding the money himself.

Within days of Dr Afzal submitting her complaint to the SRA, she received a threatening phone call advising her to withdraw the complaint. A recording of this call was provided to the SRA, although Ali denied any involvement.

The disciplinary proceedings also examined Ali’s handling of crucial covert audio evidence recorded in both English and Urdu. Ali, a fluent Urdu speaker, had listened to the recordings in August 2019 but told Jamshaid and instructed counsel that the Urdu portions were largely inaudible and not damaging to the defence.

When later transcribed and played in court, the Urdu conversations were found to be audible and strongly indicative of Jamshaid’s involvement in the conspiracy, following which Jamshaid changed his plea to guilty mid-trial.

Dr Afzal stated that even during the trial, Ali prevented her husband from pleading guilty, and that she was forced to contact a PCB representative who was present in court to relay to the NCA that Jamshaid wished to change his plea, which ultimately led to his guilty plea.

Senior Counsel in the case confirmed during the disciplinary proceedings that had Jamshaid been properly advised earlier about the true nature of the evidence, he could have entered an earlier guilty plea and may have faced a lesser sentence.

The Tribunal heard that Jamshaid denied involvement in bribing cricketers from the date of his arrest in 2017 until December 2019, maintaining what became known as the “cricket bat defence”, claiming he believed conversations with co-conspirators related to a proposed cricket equipment business.

Jamshaid told the Tribunal that he had admitted his guilt to Ali from the outset and alleged that Ali encouraged him to pursue a not-guilty plea and fabricate elements of the defence — Ali has denied this.

Further evidence was served by the Crown Prosecution Service in October 2019 in the form of WhatsApp messages involving Jamshaid and others, which were indicative of guilt.

The Tribunal heard that during a meeting at Ali’s office later that month, Jamshaid indicated that he wished to change his plea to guilty, and both Jamshaid and Dr Afzal, who was also present in the meeting, alleged that Ali advised against this and suggested alternative scenarios to continue a defence case.

The Tribunal heard that Ali knew or believed that the Urdu portions of the covert recording were indicative of Jamshaid’s guilt but failed to provide accurate information about their content to instructed counsel.

James Pickup KC confirmed during proceedings that counsel had been misled regarding the true nature of the audio evidence. While the Tribunal did not find Ali guilty on this allegation on the balance of probabilities, Dr Afzal maintains that he intentionally misled both counsel and client for his own financial gain, prolonging a legal aid-funded case while simultaneously taking cash payments from Jamshaid, and she is now considering further legal action in relation to this matter.

Describing Ali’s misconduct as very serious, the Tribunal imposed financial sanctions totalling £70,000 and concluded that his actions involved dishonesty, misleading his client, and fundamental failures in handling client money.