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IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM ACT 1999
IMMIGRATION SERVICES TRIBUNAL
In The Matter Of A Notice Of Appeal
Under rule 5 of the Immigration Services Tribunal Rules 2000
BY
LEWISHAM COMMUNITY LAW
FIRM
APPEAL NO. IMS/2002/007/RTR
Before: Brian Kennedy QC Mr Martin Hoare
and
Mrs Shindo Maguire
Sitting at 48/49 Chancery lane , London WC2A 1JR
At 10.30 am on Wednesday 24 July 2002
Appearances: Martin Chamberlain instructed by The Treasury Solicitor for the Immigration Services Commissioner, the Respondent
The Appellant did not appear and was not represented.
Statement of Reasons for the Decision
We have heard the matter of an appeal dated 4 March 2002 by Lewisham Community Law Firm, the
appellant herein, against a decision of the Immigration Services Commissioner, the Respondent, dated 11
February 2002.
The grounds of the appeal specifically are as set out at paragraph 6 of the Notice of Appeal and can be seen therein. We have had the benefit of hearing oral testimony of two case workers who investigated the applicant/appellant while considering their application for registration to give advice under the name of Lewisham Community Law Firm. We heard from Ms Dawn Muspratt who handled the investigation up to May 2001. She arranged a pre-registration visit with the applicant firm on 24 April 2001. Preregistration visits are not made in all cases and concern about this applicant led to this visit. Ms Muspratt prepared an identified issues report and the applicant agreed to provide all outstanding information and
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documents by 8 May 2001. At all times and on many occasions Ms Muspratt dealt with Mr Solomon Kekcurah. Delay beyond 8 May in providing documents led to further concerns and investigations. We also heard from Ms Sofia Bhatti, who took up the investigation from May of 2001. She also dealt with it at all times, and on numerous occasions with Mr Solomon Kekcurah as the principal of Lewisham Community Law Firm.
The Tribunal wish to comment on the impression made by the witnesses on behalf of the respondent. They came across as conscientious and professional objective witnesses who carried out a very thorough investigation in this case. We considered the grounds of appeal in light of the evidence. It is wrong to suggest that the application was refused solely on the character reference of one applicant.
The Commissioner considered carefully the application in light of representations made by two named advisors, Mr Francis Wilson and Mr Solomon Kekcurah described respectively as director and senior legal advisor. In both cases the information provided was, in our view, significantly incorrect.
The Commissioner established that Mr Wilson had not been a practising barrister since 1995 and very significantly established that Mr Kekcurah had criminal convictions relating to offences of dishonesty which were not spent at the time of the application and not declared in the application.
Furthermore, and again we find significantly that the Commissioner took into account that a Mr Olu Stevens was acting in an advisory capacity on his own admission and had not been included as an advisor in the application for this firm.
We find that on the basis of representations made by Mr Stevens that he was acting as an advisor and on that basis he agreed to supply a compentency statement. This was never received.
We have considered the notice in reply by the Immigration Service Commissioner dated 8 April 2002 and on the basis of the evidence heard here today by us we come to the unanimous conclusion that the grounds of the appeal are unfounded and accordingly we reject the appeal and uphold the decision of the Immigration Services Commissioner to refuse registration to Lewisham Community Law Firm, the applicant/appellant herein.
DATED: 24 July 2002
Brian Kennedy QC
Chairman
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