Race-Baiting Lawyer Revealed to Be a Charlatan

Shahrokh Mireskandari was heavily involved in what some pundits described as a 'race war' at Scotland Yard, during which several high-profile Asian officers sued the Metropolitan Police for racial discrimination - all on the British taxpayer, naturally.

It now turns out that he is a common thief with a heavily embellished CV:

Disgraced race lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari pilfered hundreds of thousands of pounds from clients in a desperate bid to keep his ailing firm afloat, the High Court has heard.

Staff salaries at his London law firm Dean & Dean were paid directly from customer accounts, and bills totalling more than £1million went unpaid because the company was so short of cash, it was alleged.

Investigators found these and other examples of alleged dishonesty and rule breaches in an official probe that led to Mireskandari, 48, being suspended as a solicitor.

Iranian-born Mireskandari is the flamboyant lawyer who was at the centre of last year's 'race war' at Scotland Yard.

Before being exposed by the Daily Mail as a convicted fraudster with bogus legal qualifications, he represented Britain's highest ranking Asian officer Tarique Ghaffur in his bungled race claim against Scotland Yard.

He represented the National Black Police Association and was a close friend of controversial Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee.

In December last year, three months after the Daily Mail's bombshell revelations, Mireskandari was suspended by the Law Society over allegations of dishonesty and malpractice.

Now, after the conman failed in a protracted legal bid to over-turn the decision to suspend him, the Law Society urged a High Court judge to order Mireskandari to pay interim costs of £300,000.

That figure is on top of around £150,000 he was previously ordered to pay after earlier hearings - meaning Mireskandari could end up with a legal bill of several hundred thousand pounds.

The serial litigant has so far refused to pay anything, while being able to instruct nine top barristers and four firms of solicitors to represent him at various times in the proceedings.

The High Court was told last week Mireskandari is a convicted fraudster with dubious legal qualifications obtained from a 'virtual' university in the US.

He claims he is a doctor of jurisprudence after scoring top grades in masters and PhD courses at the discredited American University of Hawaii in the mid-1990s.

But he had been kicked out of a more prestigious law college after flunking his exams, the hearing was told.

Hodge Malek QC, for the Law Society, told the court: 'There remain very serious concerns about Dr Mireskandari and his academic background.

'Our case is that alleged doctorate is not based on genuine study and achievement.

'We are sceptical as to whether Dr Mireskandari is entitled to claim the academic qualifications he has … and the basis on which they were submitted to the Law Society.'

Mireskandari, convicted of a telemarketing scam in California in 1991, failed to disclose the conviction to the Law Society as required after moving to the UK and applying to practice in this country, the court was told. He also lied about his work experience in the U.S., it was alleged.

According to Mireskandari’s claims he was working full time for a firm in the U.S. at the same time as studying for postgraduate law courses at AUH and attending an eight-month trial in London.

But the Law Society has discovered that Mireskandari was studying at two other universities, including the Whittier Law School in California, the court heard.

Mireskandari claims he left because he did not enjoy the course, 'but in fact he was academically disqualified by the university,' said the QC.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, the statutory watchdog, launched an investigation into Dean and Dean last October - a month after the Mail exposed Mireskandari's corrupt past.

When inspectors tried to visit its central London offices, Mireskandari got a High Court injunction to stop them.

The solicitor lied to the judge that his firm was in 'excellent financial health and …. compliance with the Solicitors Accounting Rules was exemplary', Mr Malek said.

When inspectors finally went in they found a string of irregularities and “ample evidence to suspect dishonesty” on the part of Mireskandari, the barrister said.

One client’s £200,000 bail bond, held in a separate account, was transferred to the office account without authority, it was said. When prosecutors insisted the money should be lodged with the court, Mireskandari obtained a private loan of £250,000 to cover the missing cash.

In both October and November last year, staff salaries were paid out of client accounts, and another transfer was made from a client’s mortgage account.

Cheques started bouncing because of lack of funds and debtors including unpaid counsel and experts were fobbed off by Mireskandari, it was said. Dean & Dean has since closed down.

These were just some of a string of alleged breaches that will later form a disciplinary case against Mireskandari at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Earlier this month he dropped his challenge to the intervention after Mr Justice Henderson rejected yet another adjournment application, this time on the grounds of he was suicidal and could not cope with the trauma of being crossed examined in the witness box.

Hugo Page QC, for Mireskandari, argued the total costs being sought were 'so unreasonable that the court should refuse to make an interim costs order at all'.

He said statements from clients of Dean & Dean 'confirm that as far as they were concerned the claimant (Mireskandari) was authorised to withdraw money from clients' accounts'.