Clinical negligence solicitor struck off for backdating letter to cover court blunder
Gabriel Awosika was struck off after fabricating a backdated letter to conceal a missed service deadline. He was ordered to pay £28,500 in costs.
Solicitor fabricated evidence to hide missed court deadline, tribunal finds
A clinical negligence solicitor has been struck off the roll after producing a backdated letter in an attempt to conceal a procedural error, lawgazette.co.uk reports.
Gabriel Awosika, admitted to the roll in 2012 and working for London firm Astute Dynamic, had failed to serve his clients' claim form on the relevant NHS trust within the required four-month deadline. Rather than acknowledging the error, he served the claim on defendant solicitor Bevan Brittan — a firm that had not been instructed to accept service of proceedings.
Awosika then signed and served a witness statement asserting that service had been completed on time.
Letter inconsistencies exposed in court
When Bevan Brittan applied for an order that proceedings had not been validly served, the matter came before the court in January 2020. Awosika maintained his position and produced a letter purporting to have been served on the defendant before the deadline had passed.
His Honour Judge Roberts rejected that account. The court concluded that the letter purporting to have been served on the NHS trust had in fact been prepared at a later date and backdated.
Forensic scrutiny of the two letters — the one wrongly sent to Bevan Brittan and the one purportedly sent simultaneously to the NHS trust — revealed significant discrepancies. The reference, date and address appeared in different fonts, while the signature in one version was rendered as initials and in the other as a full signature.
Awosika disputes findings but does not appeal
Awosika did not appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. In written representations to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2023, he challenged HHJ Roberts' conclusions, arguing they were not based on the full facts. He stated he had not appealed because the judge had exercised his discretion to allow the claim to be reissued.
He told the SRA he had typed and printed the letter to the trust without saving it to his laptop, maintaining it had been created at the same time as the letter to Bevan Brittan. He insisted he would never backdate a letter to make it appear earlier than it was.
Awosika accepted that his witness statements and oral evidence to the court had at times been "rushed, unclear and inconsistent", attributing this to personal difficulties and poor recollection rather than any deliberate intention to mislead.
Tribunal: dishonesty established
The tribunal found no grounds to depart from the judge's original conclusions and determined that dishonesty had been established.
In its judgment, the tribunal stated: "He had full control of the situation. He was an experienced solicitor, by his own admission. He made a mistake, by failing to serve the NHS defendant trust directly, and then covered up his mistake by fabricating a letter. Lying to the court and to the other parties in a case was a serious offence that gravely undermined public trust in the profession."
Awosika was struck off and ordered to pay approximately £28,500 in costs.
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