{"id":82069,"date":"2017-06-29T14:03:39","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T14:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=b547855210b7a67740eacbd87e624ca4"},"modified":"2017-06-29T14:03:39","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T14:03:39","slug":"news-story-former-barrister-convicted-for-giving-illegal-immigration-advice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=82069","title":{"rendered":"News story: Former barrister convicted for giving illegal immigration advice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Mr Michael Wainwright, aged 33, of Bromley Crescent, Ruislip pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday 2 May 2017, to 8 offences of providing unregulated immigration advice between May 2013 and June 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The offences committed over a 3 year period commenced when Mr Wainwright was a practising barrister. His entitlement to practice did not include accepting instructions from clients.   He was suspended on the 5 August 2014 and then disbarred from practicing as a barrister on 3 December 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Following his disbarment Mr Wainwright formed a legal services company Crested Associates Ltd, which he used to commit further offences, targeting vulnerable persons seeking immigration advice until finally remanded into custody on the 2 May 2017.<\/p>\n<p>His conduct in committing these offences included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>conducting cases when not entitled to do so<\/li>\n<li>contacting detainees facing deportation at Immigration Removal Centres and promising to lodge Judicial Reviews or make bail applications on their behalf<\/li>\n<li>failing to make applications to the Home Office or the Immigration Tribunals for which he had been instructed and paid by the applicants<\/li>\n<li>lodging Judicial Reviews and applications before the Upper Tribunal and at the High Court<\/li>\n<li>making applications before Tribunals as the \u201capplicant in person\u201d and seeking fee remissions<\/li>\n<li>appearing in person as a representative before Immigration Tribunals when no longer qualified to do so<\/li>\n<li>making false claims as to his status before the Immigration Tribunals or claiming to act as a McKenzie Friend<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On 28 June 2017 at Southwark Crown Court His Honour Judge Hehir sentenced Mr Wainwright to a total of 22 months imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the victims totalling \u00a32,858.<\/p>\n<p>When sentencing HHJ Hehir said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Your conduct represents a flagrant disregard for not only the standards of profession you used to be a part of, but also the Bar Standards Board and also the criminal courts and their orders too.<\/p>\n<p>The facts of the eight offences have been very fully opened to me. They reveal that you persistently and in a sophisticated fashion, held yourself out to vulnerable and often desperate people.<\/p>\n<p>The prohibition is there for good reason. Whether or not those who seek help for immigration advice or services have a good case, or are entitled to be in the UK is neither here nor there. They and their families are highly vulnerable and often desperate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Charlatans like you take advantage take of their difficulty and desperation and by doing so you can only harm their interests. You were deliberately taking advantage of these people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Speaking about the decision, Deputy Immigration Services Commissioner Dr Ian Leigh said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">These are serious offences that are aggravated by a knowing disregard of the statutory regime, and I am pleased with the outcome in this case.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former barrister pleads guilty to providing unregulated immigration advice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82070,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82069\/revisions\/82070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}