A man ‘fixated’ on fulfilling his dream career as a barrister has been jailed after falsely securing a chambers role and working on cases despite not having legal qualifications.
Scott Willey worked at a chambers - today revealed to have been 4 Brick Court in London - for around eight months before his lies were uncovered.
According to City of London Police, Willey, 27, attended City Law School in London, but did not graduate and was never called to the bar. Despite this, he became intent on pursuing a career in law.
Willey, without authority, accessed a colleague’s email account and stole a copy of a practising certificate, which he then edited to pass off as his own. He used the fraudulent practising certificate to obtain a legal aid account and informed the chambers he had qualified from the Bar Professional Training Course with a mark of 'very competent’.
He also provided another colleague’s Bar Council membership number to ’maintain the appearance of being a barrister’ to the Bar Standards Board and to the chambers.
Willey joined the chambers at the start of October 2017 but it was not until June 2018 that his lies were eventually uncovered.
On Friday, 29 March, Willey was jailed for two years and three months at Inner London Crown Court. He pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation, one count of making/supplying an article for the use in fraud, one count of falsely implying to be a barrister and one offence under the computer misuse act.
Detective Constable Gary Kearley, from the City of London Police, said: ‘Willey went to extraordinary lengths to cover up his lack of qualifications and fool a professional chambers of law into hiring him as a barrister. By doing this he abused many people’s trust including his clients who looked to him for professional and legally sound advice and help.’
4 Brick Court declined to comment this afternoon.
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