{"id":13821,"date":"2019-01-06T17:26:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T17:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinegh.com\/?p=13821"},"modified":"2019-01-07T08:27:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T08:27:50","slug":"ghanaian-lawyer-in-uk-ordered-to-repay-22m-over-fraudulent-legal-aid-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinetv.com\/?p=13821","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian lawyer in UK ordered to repay \u00a322m over fraudulent legal aid claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13822\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinegh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/John-Blavo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"224\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The supercar-driving director of one of Britain\u2019s biggest legal aid law firms has been ordered to pay back \u00a322 million made from \u2018thousands of fake claims\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">John Blavo\u2019s firm, Blavo &amp; Co Solicitors, was closed in 2015 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority when concerns were raised about its huge legal claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">An criminal investigation into the fraud \u2013 which is still ongoing \u2013 was then launched by the Metropolitan Police,\u00a0the Times\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But a High Court judge has now ruled that Blavo\u2019s firm entertained an \u2018endemic\u2019 culture of dishonesty and\u00a0\u2018systematic fraud\u2019 after making thousands of false claims on the legal aid fund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Blavo, 57, lived a life of luxury in a multimillion-pound house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he paraded a series of supercars and reportedly owned property across the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">His children, Stephanie and Daniel, were privately educated and enjoyed trips to the races at Royal Ascot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Blavo, from Ghana, has previously worked as a sports lawyer with several Premier League footballers, including former Arsenal right back Lauren and ex West Ham full back John Paintsil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">His firm, Blavo &amp; Co Solicitors, was one of the largest three legal aid firms in the country \u2013 with 200 employees operating in 18 offices across England and Wales just four years after it was founded in 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The firm specialised in mental health law but\u00a0but also practised in criminal, clinical negligence, housing, immigration and family law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">At least 80 per cent of the firm\u2019s \u00a311 million annual turnover was derived from the legal aid scheme and, at its height, it was the second or third largest legal aid firm in England and Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">An investigation launched in 2015 by the Legal Aid Agency found that Blavo &amp; Co made 24,658 legal aid fee claims for representing clients at mental health hearings between April 2012 and March 2015.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But investigators found a \u2018very significant discrepancy\u2019 between\u00a0between claims made on the legal aid portal and cases recorded on the court service\u2019s database,\u00a0<a class=\"class\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lawgazette.co.uk\/news\/blavo-director-ordered-to-pay-22m-over-legal-aid-claims\/5068742.article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Law Gazette<\/a>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Legal Aid Agency only found evidence of 1,485 of these cases taking place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Lord Garnier, QC, said the agency must now carry out an audit to make sure no other dishonest claims were made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Mr Justice Pepperall said that in some cases \u2018the fraud went so far as forging false files\u2019 but in many cases \u2018false files were not created\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Blavo \u2013 as the sole shareholder and manager of the firm \u2013 was ordered to repay \u00a322,136,001 claimed for legal aid work which did not exist following a seven-day hearing in October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018I find that 42 out of the 49 files audited in July 2015 were not genuine files but were falsely created in order to justify dishonest claims for payment,\u2019 the judge said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Blavo did not give evidence during the hearing in October but his lawyer said that the allegation that the firm\u2019s turnover was dishonestly obtained was \u2018inherently implausible\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">MailOnline has contacted John Blavo for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-6560003\/Director-one-Britains-biggest-legal-aid-law-firms-ordered-repay-22-MILLION.html\">Daily Mail<\/a>\u00a0| UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The supercar-driving director of one of Britain\u2019s biggest legal aid law firms has been ordered to pay back \u00a322 million made from \u2018thousands of fake claims\u2019. John Blavo\u2019s firm, Blavo &amp; Co Solicitors, was closed in 2015 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority when concerns were raised about its huge legal claims. An criminal investigation into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ghanaian lawyer in UK ordered to repay \u00a322m over fraudulent legal aid claims - Kumasi Online TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kumasionlinetv.com\/?p=13821\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghanaian lawyer in UK ordered to repay \u00a322m over fraudulent legal aid claims - Kumasi Online TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The supercar-driving director of one of Britain\u2019s biggest legal aid law firms has been ordered to pay back \u00a322 million made from \u2018thousands of fake claims\u2019. 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