An Indian lawyer who was jailed for arranging “sham marriages” to dodge British immigration laws has been banned from practising in England and Wales, a tribunal ruled earlier this month.
Mathew Moghan Rajamoham Chellam was paid “handsomely” for his “corrupt services” in organising applications for residency for people without a legal right to remain in the UK.
The 53-year-old, who qualified in India before becoming eligible to practice in England and Wales in 2013, was found to have “spun a veritable web of lies and deceits” on his clients’ behalf in submissions to the Home Office through his firm Matthew Moghan & Co Advocates.
Chellam was convicted in 2016 of assisting unlawful immigration and seeking leave to remain in the UK by deception, and was sentenced to eight years behind bars.
On July 5, he was struck off after a hearing at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) ruled his actions caused “tremendous harm to the reputation of the legal profession”.
Chellam was not present at the hearing as he has since returned to India and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
The hearing at the SDT was told that over the years he practised in England he made several fraudulent applications to the Home Office attempting to facilitate illegal immigration.
It was also found that Chellam had provided immigration advice and services for a year without being registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner and that he had tried to dodge his own removal from the UK when his leave to remain ended by claiming he was in a genuine marriage to an EU citizen.
At his criminal trial, Chellam was described as having engaged in misleading and deceitful behaviour by organising “sham marriages between otherwise illegal immigrants and EU nationals.”
A police investigation found that he had submitted false paperwork to the Home Office, including fake birth certificates and wage slips from sham cleaning companies.
Chellam also arranged fake weddings between Indian and French nationals, purportedly taking place in Ghana, where the law recognises ‘customary marriages’ by proxy—at which the bride and the groom are not even required to be present.
Striking Chellam off, the tribunal branded his conduct “a fundamental affront” to rules “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.”
The tribunal noted that “a solicitor acting with integrity would not have committed a crime repeatedly” and that the gravity of Chellam’s misconduct had been reflected in the length of his custodial sentence.
It added: “The sentence imposed by the court shows that the court determined that the offence was the most serious, and the public would not expect a solicitor to assist unlawful immigration into an EU member state. The respondent’s actions would undermine the trust and confidence of the public place in the legal profession.
“A solicitor acting with integrity would not have committed a crime repeatedly. 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 failed to act with integrity in that he has failed to act with moral soundness, rectitude and steady adherence to an ethical code.”
The SDT said his motivation for the misconduct was monetary gain and his conduct had caused “tremendous harm to the reputation of the legal profession.”
Given the seriousness of the misconduct, the tribunal “did not consider that a fine or suspension would be sufficient or appropriate” and therefore ordered Chellam be “struck off the Roll of Solicitors.”
It further ordered him to pay costs of £4,048.
