RSA Professional & Financial Risks Claims employee Katherine Ashton is accused of wilfully submittin false and fraudulent emails in legal proceedings. It is common knowledge that lying to an insurance company in pursuit of a claim is regarded as a fraud and can land you in prison.
So, it comes as a shock to find RSA’s employee Katherine Ashton making false and fraudulent statements shown to Financial Fraudster News Investigations Team following emails sent by Ashton to Edmonton County Court whilst seemingly acting as a pseudo lawyer for Victor Puis Amadigwe manager and Haringey Law Centre who are both accused of charging up to £300 per hour for people living in the poorest borough in London for legal services and not providing receipts or correct invoicing for clients in desperate need for help in contravention of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Code of Conduct which provides:
Pursuant to section 3 and 4 below:
3: Service and competence
You only act for clients on instructions from the client, or from someone properly authorised to provide instructions on their behalf. If you have reason to suspect that the instructions do not represent your client's wishes, you do not act unless you have satisfied yourself that they do.
However, in circumstances where you have legal authority to act notwithstanding that it is not possible to obtain or ascertain the instructions of your client, then you are subject to the overriding obligation to protect your client's best interests.
You ensure that the service you provide to clients is competent and delivered in a timely manner.
You maintain your competence to carry out your role and keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date.
You consider and take account of your client's attributes, needs and circumstances.
Where you supervise or manage others providing legal services:
you remain accountable for the work carried out through them; and
you effectively supervise work being done for clients.
You ensure that the individuals you manage are competent to carry out their role and keep their professional knowledge and skills, as well as an understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date.
4: Client money and assets
You properly account to clients for any financial benefit you receive as a result of their instructions, except where they have agreed otherwise.
You safeguard money and assets entrusted to you by clients and others.
You do not personally hold client money save as permitted under regulation 10.2(b)(vii) of the Authorisation of Individuals Regulations unless you work in an authorised body, or in an organisation of a kind prescribed under this rule on any terms that may be prescribed accordingly.
In an email to David Smith a retired and disabled air force engineer’s power of attorney after Ashton had received a copy of Smith’s power of attorney granting a third party to communicate with any person or organisation regarding Smith’s legal correspondence and who Amadigwe and Haringey Law Centre received payments of £7500 instead of confronting the issues of Smith’s invoices the Financial Fraudster News Investigations Team has seen emails which Ashton sought to state bizarrely the following:
“Dear Sirs
Thank you for your email the content of which has been reviewed we repeat that a number of documents you have requested do form part of the documentation requested. Although due to the contents of your email we will now correspond and provide the further documentation to Mr Smith only.
Please can you confirm as a McKenzie friend how you are able to manage cases outside of Court? This is not allowed and as you will be well aware of the rules of McKenzie friend under the Practice Guidance - McKenzie Friends (Civil and Family Court). The general rules
McKenzie Friend Can:
Give quiet advice on points of law to the litigant
Advise the litigant on issues that they might want to raise in Court
Suggest to the litigant questions that they might want to ask the other party or witnesses
Help organise documents
Take notes
What McKenzie Friends may not do
4) MFs may not:
i) act as the litigants’ agent in relation to the proceedings;
ii) manage litigants’ cases outside court, for example by signing court documents; or
iii) address the court, make oral submissions or examine witnesses.
In respect of the conduct today you have been undertaking all of the above which a McKenzie friend is not allowed to complete. In addition, the General Power of attorney document does not have general powers for litigation as far as we can see.”
Oblivious to the fact that proceedings had not started Ashton made several false and fraudulent statements indicating that Smith’s power of attorney was acting in a manner that implied was wrong based on Ashton’s, who is not a lawyer, reckless fraudulent and ignorant conduct.
In one case Smith was unable to provide evidence of monies paid to Amadigwe and Haringey Law Centre in order to keep adequate financial records who refused to provide invoices for sub-standard legal work while acting for Mr Smith in protracted proceedings starting in 2018 in transcripts obtained by the Financial Fraudster News Investigations Team which the presiding Judge, His Honour Judge Saggerson commented about the representation and written submissions made by Amadigwe and Haringey Law Centre the Judge is heard saying in an excerpt from the transcripts, “
JUDGE SAGGERSON: “This was further to an order that I made last autumn [2018]. The purpose of both of those orders was to ensure that what there was of a claimant’s claim that could withstand CPR 3.4 or 24.2 was coherently articulated so that everybody would know what the boundaries and scope of this forthcoming trial were going to be…” “I don’t want to be particularly censorious about the Haringey Legal Advice Centre, or whatever it is because one appreciates the sort of difficulties they have and the usual context in which they are trying to help a whole range of people across a number of difficult issues, but they have not been able to help Mr Smith project his claim in any proper sense.
of it not being compliant this action stands as struck out as a result of the order that I made on 10 May, which was supposed to be a final opportunity for Mr Smith to get his house in order.
MR RUSSELL: Your Honour, it would hardly be a credible burning sense of injustice given the latitude which he has been given. This is the third attempt to lick this claim into shape, from 16 November and 10 May [Amadigwe and Haringey Law Centre acting for Smith], and the first defendant would say that there comes a time when the merry-go-round has to stop - but the costs that are faced by the defendant are out of all disproportion to the value of the claim, and are unnecessarily incurred because of the bungling way in which this case is being presented through the statements of case. Again, standing back, your Honour observed back in November, two counsel ago, that there were – this was a difficult case that was being asked, that was being advanced, and it was important, and you sent a message to his legal advisors at the time, “For goodness sake get someone who knows what they are doing to put their minds”
Financial Fraudster News will update readers on any further developments in this story.
Financial Fraudster News has asked Ashton and RSA press office to comment.
Please contact Steve Gregg: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
