The Solicitors Regulation Authority has removed curbs on the practising certificates of 11 solicitors of a high-profile firm shut down by the regulator more than a year ago.
The SRA intervened into Blavo & Co and the practice of sole director John Blavo in October 2015, two weeks after the Legal Aid Agency referred concerns about the London-headquartered firm to the Metropolitan Police.
This week the SRA published decisions stating that the following solicitors’ practising certificates are 'free from conditions’: Lee-Ann Jennine Frampton-Anderson, Maureen Uzoamaka Chigboh-Anyadi, Leslie Arthur Kisseih, Mark David Fidler, Koshi Blavo Barna, Joanne Mary Day, Balbir Bains, Kezia Daley, Michelle Sarah Mwangi, Barbara Simula and David John Hodge.
The decision for Koshi Blavo Barna states that she changed her name from Gillian Blavo on 6 January this year.
According to Companies House, the 11 solicitors resigned as directors of Blavo & Co Solicitors Limited in 2015.
The SRA placed conditions on their PCs last year, publishing the decisions on its website. The regulator told the Gazette at the time that the conditions were not a disciplinary action.
In the decisions, published this week, the regulator said: 'The SRA is satisfied that none of the purposes set out in regulation 7 of the SRA Practising Regulations 2011 or the regulatory objectives contained in the Legal Services Act 2007 and the principles governing regulatory activities in section 28 of that act make it necessary in the interests of the public to impose any practising certificate condition.’
A company winding-up order filed with Companies House shows that Blavo & Co Solicitors Limited was wound up on 30 November 2015 under the provisions of the Insolvency Act 1986.
John Blavo does not hold a current practising certificate and therefore cannot practise as a solicitor in England and Wales.
The Gazette reported in February last year that the High Court continued a freezing order against John Blavo in a judgment handed down on 28 January 2016. A freezing order was first made against Blavo on 26 November 2015.
A spokesperson for the Legal Aid Agency said: 'The freezing order that we successfully obtained against the assets of Blavo & Co’s sole director remains in place.
‘There is an ongoing police investigation so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.’
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that an investigation into Blavo & Co continues.