A London solicitor has denied involvement in an email ‘scam’ attempting to get money out of people in Greece by accusing them of illegal filesharing.

Emails purporting to be from ACS:Law in London were sent to people in Greece accusing them of illegal filesharing, and seeking a compensation payment of £1,665 to avoid court action.

Andrew Crossley, formerly sole principal at ACS:Law, told the Gazette the emails were nothing to do with him, and said it was ‘obviously a scam’. He said he is reporting the matter to the police.

The story came to light after a client based in Greece contacted Michael Forrester, a partner at Manchester firm Ralli, who has acted for several defendants in actions relating to cases pursued in the UK by ACS:Law.

Forrester said: ‘[People in Greece] have received emails purporting to be from ACS: Law. The IP addresses quoted do not appear conventional, making reference to country codes outside of the UK.

‘Despite this, the letters of claim refer to UK law under the Copyrights, Design and Patents Act.’

A spokesman for Ralli said the firm had been contacted by Crossley, who denied the emails had been generated by him.

Crossley told the Gazette that having seen the emails, 'it is not my email and not my address. The address is old and postcode is misstated'.

He added: ‘It is not a demand made by me and it is quite clear from the way it was written that it was not.’

Crossley said he was ‘shocked and surprised’ that Forrester would be taken in by the ‘obvious scam’, and that he had not contacted Crossley about it directly. Forrester declined to comment on these points.

ACS: Law has been the subject of controversy after it sent out thousands of letters to people in the UK alleging that they had illegally shared copyrighted material, and seeking compensation payments.

On behalf of its client MediaCAT, ACS:Law took some of the alleged defendants to court before attempting to discontinue the cases.

A judge in the Patents County Court refused to halt the cases, accusing the claimants and Crossley of seeking to avoid judicial scrutiny of the claims.

After the cases were dismissed, Crossley faced a wasted costs order. The cases were eventually settled out of court last week.

Crossley is due to appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal later this year, following an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The case has not yet been listed by the SDT.

He denies all of the allegations levelled against him by the SRA. Crossley closed down his firm in February 2011 and retains a practicing certificate.