A SOLICITOR involved with controversial law firm Asons has been suspended following a tribunal.

Munir Majid, 38, was a solicitor and head of industrial disease with Asons. When the firm was bought by and clients transferred to Coops Law he became head of legal practice (HOLP).

Mr Majid has been suspended from practising as a solicitor for 6 months and ordered to pay almost £18,000 in legal costs.

Prior to the tribunal Mr Majid admitted eight allegations relating to his time time at Coops Law concerning taking on 5,743 files without proper client consent and transferring £596,302.69 of client money without authorisation.

The tribunal was “satisfied there had been no identifiable loss to clients”, that he had “relied on other members of staff” and that “he had shown contrition”.

However, the tribunal said: “[Mr Munir] acted with a lack of integrity and had failed to act in the clients’ best interests. He had also behaved in a way that did not maintain the trust the public placed in him."

The tribunal found that Coops was set up in an attempt to hinder action by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), though this was denied by Irfan Akram, (called IA in the ruling), manager and sole-beneficial owner of Coops, the brother of Kamran Akram, who wholly owned Asons.

Asons hit the headlines in November 2016 when it was revealed the solicitors had received a £300,000 grant from Bolton Council.

While the grant was legal the council was criticised by auditors for a lack of documentation.

In March last year Kamran Akram, was suspended and the firm was shut by the SRA. In July he was given an 18-month suspension from practising.

The tribunal documents reveal more about what happened when Asons was closed down and Coops Law established.

Coops approached AL Solicitors to deal with the purchase of Asons on March 22, 2017 aiming to complete "as expeditiously as possible"saying the "name and business itself is considered toxic" because of negative press coverage.

Asons was bought for £229,534.57 the next day. After the sale Mr Majid was appointed as HOLP.

The tribunal said Mr Majid also “failed to carry out due diligence before accepting the role”, not checking documents. This resulted in Coops breaching a condition attached to its licence preventing it from “accepting paid referral fees from a claims management company” belonging to Irfan Akram.