Trainee solicitor banned for offering unlawful immigration advice

A trainee lawyer has been told he can no longer work in the legal profession after a conviction for unauthorised immigration work.

Sherman Dzviti, 43, was employed as a trainee solicitor by south London firm Gordon and Thompson Ltd from August 2020.

On 1 February 2021, Dzviti was convicted of two counts of providing unqualified immigration advice/service in contravention of s86 of the asylum and immigration act. He was sentenced to a community service order of 200 hours of unpaid work.

Dzviti, who remains unqualified, can no longer be employed by a practice as a solicitor or manager unless he has the SRA’s prior written permission.

The SRA said: ‘Mr Dzviti was involved in a legal practice and has been convicted of a criminal offence which is such that it is undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice in any of the ways described in the order.’

Southwark Crown Court heard large amounts of money and legal documents such as birth certificates and passports were given to Dzviti and his wife Choice Dzviti, who traded as CS Legal Consultants, CS Law Ltd and Casson Law.

The pair then refused to return the documents or speak to the complainants, leading to one contacting the Legal Ombudsman.

Speaking at the time of Dzviti’s sentencing at the Crown court, His Honour Judge Perrins said: ‘Sherman Dzviti, you were much less involved [than your wife] but it cannot be said that the quality of your services was any better.’

John Tuckett, immigration services commissioner, said at the time: 'In a devious and calculating way over a considerable period of time the Dzvitis were successful in dishonestly taking a significant amount of money from their clients.

‘This was a serious offence given the amount of money involved and the personal impact and hardship felt by the applicant.’

The SRA also dealt with Dzviti’s wife, a self-employed paralegal and caseworker, in May this year.

She was ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £300 and is not allowed to be employed at a firm or body without proper written permission from the SRA.

Ms Dzviti, who is not a solicitor, was convicted of fraud, dishonestly making false representation to make gain for self/another or cause loss to other/expose other to risk and providing unqualified immigration advice at the same trial as her husband. 

At the Crown court in 2021, she was sentenced to an immediate custodial sentence of two years' imprisonment and ordered to pay £26,951 in compensation to five victims.