Marriage scam solicitor struck off a year after criminal conviction

A solicitor jailed for ten years for his part in a £20m immigration fraud has finally been struck off by the SDT, a year after he was convicted at the Old Bailey.

Tevfick Souleiman, a former partner in North London firm Souleiman GA, said in a letter to the tribunal: "I had always respected my status as a solicitor and an officer of the Supreme Court and can only offer my sincere apologies for bringing the profession into disrepute." He was ordered to pay costs of £2,665.54.

According to reports in the national press last year, Souleiman arranged around five fake marriages a day, for which he charged up to £14,000.

Husbands were mainly from Turkey, Bulgaria, Pakistan and Albania and included members of the Albanian mafia. Judge Bevan told the Old Bailey that brides were brought in on a "conveyor belt" from EU countries in the Baltic, and from Bulgaria and Romania, to marry illegal immigrants.

Souleiman was said to have provided fake documents such as statutory declarations that marriages were genuine, tenancy agreements and references.

Judge Bevan said: "There must be scores of such people in the country, many of whom will be imposing their wholly undeserved burden on hard-pressed taxpayers."

He sentenced Soulieman to 10 years for conspiracy to breach immigration law by arranging sham marriages from August 2004 and February 2012, and receiving the proceeds of crime.

According to the SDT's annual report, from May 2012 to May 2013 only 55 per cent of cases were concluded within six months of the tribunal's issue date.

A further 24 per cent of cases, like Souleiman's, took between six and 12 months, while the remaining 26 per cent were undetermined for over a year.

Souleiman, who lived in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, did not attend the tribunal hearing.

Gordon Ramsay, the SRA's director of legal and enforcement, said the first principle in the code of conduct was to uphold the rule of law.

"While Mr Souleiman's action breached other principles, we will not fail to act when solicitors are involved in illegal activity," he said.