Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Court hears of lawyer providing false alibi to client as legal profession prefers talk of 'rising standards'

It only takes a few minutes in reality for the cries of "rising standards" within the Scottish legal profession to be proved wrong.

The following case reported in the Scotsman newspaper of a lawyer admitting to giving a client a false alibi (wasting one's career on a client, a dangerous thing indeed) will give the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal something more to shout about , or perhaps a victim to take their public rage out on, proving the world still needs their failed remit.

It has been pointed out that if the accused resigns his position on the Solicitors Roll, like Ms Angela Baillie who reputedly caused the SSDT such grief last week as to provoke a run to the newspapers in search of new powers, he could regain his practicing certificate later on but maybe Paul McBride his defence Counsel has already pointed that one out, being the same defence Counsel of Ms Baillie.

Of course, lawyers regularly give alibis to other lawyers when it involves a client complaint, on everything from defrauding banks & faking up files, to even defrauding clients & the inland revenue. It's just this time, the lawyer has admitted in court, giving an alibi to a client. Usually, there isn't even an eyebrow raised to the former, but the latter it seems is a taboo in the legal profession, not to mention against the law in both cases of course.

The spectacle of the SSDT calling for new laws after the event is reminiscent of the Law Society making a big fuss over the powers given to it in the Council of the Law Society of Scotland Bill, ran through the Scottish Parliament at great speed by former Tory leader David 'Taxi' McLetchie MSP & Roseanna Cunningham MSP, former chair of the Justice & Home Affairs Committee of the Scottish Parliament.

The Council of the Law Society of Scotland Act 2003 was yet another piece of legal profession sponsored legislation which was claimed would clean up the regulatory world of lawyer covering up for lawyer .. although as we all know, has had no impact on the ever rising levels of corruption in the Scottish legal profession, only proving yet again the failure of allowing lawyers to regulate themselves.

Article follows from the Scotsman - no news in the story on what happened to the "serious criminal" as he can't be named for legal reasons

One has to wonder why the accused solicitor has even had to admit guilt .. as there are a fair few in the legal profession with criminal convictions still practicing and some who have faced much more serious allegations than the solicitor in the story... it's just the Law Society of Scotland won't let the public know about it.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1116452007

Lawyer provided false alibi
ARNOT MCWHINNIE

A LAWYER gave a "serious criminal" a false alibi for his trial on abduction and attempted extortion charges, a court heard yesterday.

The solicitor, Shahid Pervez, 39, told police that the man, who for legal reasons cannot be named, was in his office discussing an insurance claim when the crime was alleged to have been committed.

At the High Court in Glasgow, Pervez, of Crookston, Glasgow, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The judge, Lord Hardie, told Pervez he faced jail, but he continued his bail pending sentence next month, ordering him to report to the police twice daily. The judge was told that Pervez was now no longer practising as a solicitor and would eventually be struck off.

Alex Prentice, prosecuting, said Pervez was a conveyancing lawyer at Belton Pervez in Victoria Road, Glasgow, when the offence happened between 22 March and 23 May, 2005.

Mr Prentice said the lawyer was approached by one of his clients who was indicted for a High Court trial alleging charges of abduction, assault and attempted extortion.

He asked the solicitor to provide him with an alibi and Pervez agreed. A special defence of alibi was lodged for the trial, and the Crown instructed police to take statements from Pervez.

He told them the man was in his office discussing an insurance claim between 11:30am and noon, when it was alleged the crime was committed. He repeated this in a sworn affidavit.

Mr Prentice told the court concerns were raised that the alibi might have been concocted and police were instructed by the Crown to investigate.

Paul McBride, QC, defending, told Lord Hardie: "He is a naive, stupid young man who has succumbed to threats of violence from people involved in serious, monumental criminality."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think the Scotsman liked your comment on this one, even though you are obviously correct.

Since the legal profession were so good about others declaring the numbers of their staff with criminal convictions maybe you are right and it's about time we knew how many lawyers have records too.

Anonymous said...

"there are a fair few in the legal profession with criminal convictions still practicing and some who have faced much more serious allegations than the solicitor in the story... it's just the Law Society of Scotland won't let the public know about it"

If lawyers have criminal records clients should be told.

Anonymous said...

Peter

You should be on Pervez' defence team after suggesting that !

Anonymous said...

I know a few lawyers who have lied for their clients before - just depends how much money the client has, which usually helps the lawyer to get off the hook too.

Anonymous said...

surprised no one suggested race as an issue yet

If it had been a white male lawyer from the boys club lying his arse off for his client would he still be facing jail?

I don't think so

Anonymous said...

Hi

Nice blog, dont think I'll ever trust a lawyer now after reading it !

Anonymous said...

so a lawyer who gives his client an alibi might go to jail but a lawyer who rips off client after client gets away with it

lawyers seem to control too much of our lives and its high time someone took those bastards aside and put a stop to it

Anonymous said...

McBride didn't to a good job for Baillie - she got sent to jail but had an early release.

Pervez should take your advice & resign his registration then come back later on and give the Law Society another public relations disaster.

Anonymous said...

I'd say we are talking some major racial bias in that case.Just look at what some of the white, married, 2.4 kids & rent boy on the side lawyers have got up to and the cops don't go near them.

Diary of Injustice said...

# fed up, Fife @2.23pm

Yes, thanks for pointing that one out, someone emailed me to let me know too.

I mentioned last week's story on the SSDT calling for new powers to tackle lawyers who resigned their registration before the Discipline Tribunal could do anything and since the Scotsman didn't allow comment on that, and don't seem to like the fact there are lawyers with criminal records still practising, it was taken out.

As a friend pointed out, it will be interesting to see what sentence the lawyer in the story gets, compared to the Policeman who was sentenced to 73 days for lying here :
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=332862007

#Anonymous @ 8.35pm

"white, married, 2.4 kids & rent boy on the side lawyers" that sounds like a good description of some 'leading lights' of the Scottish legal profession. If you know of any, be sure to tell their wives about it, or better yet, the tabloids.

I don't know if the case has any racial overtones yet, we will have to wait & see.

What I said in the Scotsman was :
"2. Peter Cherbi, Edinburgh / 4:23am 18 Jul 2007
If he tactfully resigns his practising certificate & position on the Solicitors Roll before the Law Society get a chance to do anything, he may can come back as a solicitor at a later date (like some in the profession whom many would not suspect of such ...
In the event of a resignation before completion of the criminal case, we could also have another story like this : http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1531703.0.0.php
just to remind everyone how incompetent the legal profession's spin machine is these days.
Calling for new laws after the event seems to be a speciality these days .. after all those decades of self regulation and doing nothing other than for themselves."

the truth hurts ?

Anonymous said...

You must have rocked someone's boat with that comment Peter, wonder why !
Things getting hot over at the hootsmon on the lawyer front these days ?

Anonymous said...

Scotsman censors at it again ? Who cares ! The paper is full of garbage anyway. Oh btw good blog, keep it up laddie You are pissing off the lawyers and anyone who manages that deserves a medal !

Anonymous said...

he's a lawyer, he will get off !