A former solicitor who enlisted litigants with hopeless cases to pursue a campaign over alleged corruption in the justice system has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for contempt.
In a judgment published this week, Edward William Ellis, who was struck off in 2013, was found to have breached a general civil restraint order (GCRO) which prevents him from ‘issuing claims on behalf of others or from assisting others to bring claims’. Ellis, who according to the judgment ‘submits that this court and our courts generally are corrupt’, denied liability for contempt.
The judgment found that two claims had been made when the GCRO was ‘very much in force’, on behalf of one ‘Ediz Haztunc’ and a ‘Citizen Father Mr Sham Pal Sood’. The ‘Haztunc’ application was dismissed as totally without merit.
The phrasing of the applications, the judgment found, had ‘some distinct and unusual features’, which had also been used by Ellis ‘on frequent occasions’.
In His Majesty’s Solicitor General v Edward William Ellis, Mr Justice Kerr said Ellis had ‘a long history of flouting orders of this court since 2016’.
A serious aggravating feature of Ellis’ conduct was the use of litigants to pursue his campaign, ‘probably giving them false hopes and expectations’, the judge said. ‘He is not entitled to represent anyone and his applications issued in the names of others misleadingly present them as if they were litigants in person, although his idiosyncratic drafting allows the initiated to see through that.’
While Ellis, who represented himself, ‘referred at great length to what he believes to be the true legal order which, conveniently, effectively puts him and his actions in this matter above the law’, he did not deny performing the acts of contempt.
Finding Ellis in contempt to the criminal standard, the judge said: ‘A very large amount of judicial time has had to be wasted on the defendant and his applications, to the detriment of litigants in genuine need of the court’s precious resources and services.’
He added: ‘Is [Ellis] under a misapprehension about the nature of the legal system? Very probably, but there is no medical evidence about how that operates on his mind and he has had many opportunities over a period of several years to seek either or both of legal representation, which he disdains, or a medical report, which he has not sought to commission.’
In sentencing Ellis to a total of 12 months in prison, Kerr said: ‘I am quite satisfied that only a custodial penalty meets the gravity of the situation.’
Ellis’ sentence will take effect on 8 May or ‘on the first weekday thereafter’.
