A solicitor who has paid substantial damages to a victim of a political ‘deep fake’ remains under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Gazette understands.
PE teacher Cheryl Bennett accepted what her representatives called ‘substantial’ damages, costs and undertakings from lawyer, politician and social media personality Akhmed Yakoob.
Yakoob, who stood as an independent in the West Midlands mayoral election, posted footage last year on TikTok which suggested that Bennett had used racist and offensive language. She had been handing out Labour leaflets and was recorded on a household security camera, but the video was then doctored by an unknown person to wrongly suggest she had used a racist slur.
Yakoob, who has 210,000 followers on TikTok, posted the clip and shared Bennett’s name and place of work.
Bennett has said she was then subjected to a ‘torrent of abuse’ in the weeks and months following the sharing of the clip: her school received 800 formal complaints and she was told not to return to work for her own safety. There were reports of people going to the homes of her family members to track her down.
Nick McAleenan, partner at national firm Brabners who represented Bennett in her claim against Yakoob, said: ‘It’s important that technology isn’t used to spread misleading material, especially during election campaigns. “Deep fakes” risk interfering with the democratic process and unfairly swaying voters. It’s significant that we’ve been able to set the record straight.’
It is understood that the SRA opened its investigation into Yakoob’s conduct last May, but no formal proceedings have been brought.
The criminal law solicitor, who describes himself as ‘not a magician but a legal technician’, regularly ends his video with the slogan: ‘there’s a defence for every offence’.
He reportedly told the Sunday Times: ‘Of course I’m sorry. If I wasn’t sorry, I wouldn’t have agreed to settle with her and give her a sum of money […] I acknowledged my mistake.’
Yakoob came third in the West Midlands mayoral election with 69,621 votes (11.7%). He later stood as an independent candidate in the general election and came second in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency behind justice secretary Shabana Mahmood.
