A private client solicitor has been struck off after the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that he had overcharged a vulnerable widow by over £250,000 while taking over six years to administer her estate.
Jayesh Sasdev, admitted in 1987, was the sole equity owner of Ilford firm Archier Fields Solicitors.
His client instructed him following the death of her husband. She did not speak English as her first language and was busy caring for a two-year-old child alongside administering her husband’s estate.
During the following six years, Sasdev repeatedly “targeted his client’s vulnerability”, failing to provide adequate or accurate costs information and failing to wind up the estate promptly.
The costs Sasdev burdened his clients with include £75,000 to store documents at his firm’s premises, up to £10,000 for estate agents commission, £1,200 per month for a two-bedroom house to store the boxes full of 7,600 files and documents from the deceased husband’s legal practice, text messages and communication with the SRA.
The SRA’s inquiries revealed that the annual storage cost for the deceased husband’s relevant assets would have been closer to £2,000. Despite this, Sasdev said he did not accept that the charges were excessive or unjustified, rather that he acted honestly and perhaps made genuine mistakes. He also argued that the senior courts costs office was the appropriate venue for a dispute over costs, not the tribunal.
Sasdev also put pressure onto his client not to report his conduct to the SRA.
The tribunal deemed Sasdev’s evidence “not credible” and that the invoices the client received were “deliberately obscure” so as not to be challenged. The tribunal said:
“His conduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated. He had targeted his client’s vulnerability, preying on her lack of English. He had caused her to fear the SRA so that she would not make any contact with them, or voice any complaint about his conduct; he had coerced his client into not communicating with the SRA. It was a pattern of behaviour that had continued throughout his retainer and had continued thereafter with the delivery of his final bill.”
He was struck off and ordered to pay £69,233.
