The defendants are alleged to have defrauded Britain's legal aid scheme by more than ?300,000
LONDON (TrustLaw) – A lawyer attempted to charge Britain’s legal aid scheme for 26 hours’ work in a single day, London’s Metro newspaper reported.
Reuben Ewujowoh and two legal associates allegedly defrauded the legal aid scheme of more than £300,000 ($484,000) by inflating their expense reports, Croydon Crown Court heard on Monday.
“In a clearly fraudulent scheme they massaged and amended every category of expense in their financial favour,” prosecutor Janet Weeks told the court, according to the paper.
“What caught them is they have done it for two cases side by side and there are not enough hours in the day. This was systematic fraudulent claiming,” Weeks added.
The prosecution alleged that the trio defrauded Leicester Crown Court and Luton Crown Court on two separate cases between 2007 and 2008.
The prosecution said that the trio claimed £163,769 – more than twice any other lawyer on one of the cases – even though Ewujowoh had spent far less time working on the case than the other lawyers involved.
Reuben Ewujowoh, Lloyd McDonald and Robert Odong all deny two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in both criminal cases.
The case comes at a time when the UK’s legal aid system is already under financial strains and faces plans for its harshest cuts since its 1949 inception.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
