A paralegal heavily criticised in court for his conduct of a defence has been barred from working in the solicitors profession.

Pile of documents on desk

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Adekanmi Awotidebe was made subject to the order by the Solicitors Regulation Authority after backdating and signing four documents which were sent to the opposing litigation solicitors and the court. The order was imposed last July but details published only last month.

The SRA said Awotidebe’s actions were potentially misleading to the court and dishonest.

In a judgment handed down in July 2021, District Judge David Potts said the defence’s application notice seeking relief from sanction, supported by a witness statement from Awotidebe, had been ‘curious’ and ‘somewhat chaotic’.

The application was served on 27 November 2020 but had been dated 11 days earlier, with the court told the backdating of documents was because these had been ‘pre-prepared’.

Potts described the ‘casual and perfunctory’ approach to dating documents as ‘frightening’ and a serious professional matter. The explanation as to why documents were backdated was ‘grossly inadequate’ and ‘quite misleading’.

Awotidebe is an advanced paralegal member of CILEX who worked for south London firm Deton Solicitors. The SRA said he had dishonestly tried to mislead the court into believing a defence had been served and filed earlier than it was: the regulator described this as an ‘act of deceit’.

He was made subject to a section 43 order preventing him from working for any regulated firm without the SRA’s permission. He was also ordered to pay £1,350 costs.