Akhtar: Sentencing next month
A criminal barrister who helped a gangster trace a gunman who tried to assassinate him is facing a long prison sentence and the end of her legal career.
Samreen Akhtar was found guilty of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence when she appeared at Manchester Crown Court last month.
The Crown Prosecution Service told Legal Futures that Ms Akhtar had talked with her client – a known gangster from Huddersfield called Tabish Ali – the day after he was shot in September 2021, suggesting that they “locate and cause serious harm” to the gunman who had tried to kill him the day before.
Ms Akhtar, who is 37, will be sentenced on 7 September. The offence carries a maximum term of life in prison.
Following her conviction, the Bar Standards Board suspended Ms Akhtar, who was called to the Bar in 2010.
A BSB statement said: “Barrister Samreen Akhtar has been suspended from practice by the chair of our Independent Decision-Making Body. Under our enforcement regulations, the interim suspension must now be considered by an interim suspension panel at a hearing within the next four weeks.”
Her involvement in a vicious drugs turf war and organised crime, and the prospect of a prison sentence and being struck off by the Bar, marks a drastic fall from grace.
In 2020, the Bar Council selected Ms Akhtar as one of 10 social mobility advocates, as part of its #IAmTheBar campaign which celebrated the achievements of young barristers who had attended state schools and grown up in deprived areas.
Ms Akhtar grew up in Huddersfield, the daughter of a mechanic. She was the youngest barrister on the Midlands Circuit at the time she completed her pupillage
Speaking to the Asian Standard newspaper at the time, Ms Akhtar said: “Hailing from a Pashtun background, I broke from tradition by studying beyond sixteen. I am fortunate to have parents who champion education, and it was with their blessing that I enrolled to study law at my local university, the University of Huddersfield.”
The Bar Council said then that it hoped barristers like Ms Akhtar would inspire others from underprivileged backgrounds to think about a legal career.
Ms Akhtar specialised in crime, completing her pupillage with the Crown Prosecution Service, and moving back to West Yorkshire in 2019 to move into self-employed practice and start her own chambers, Aventus.
Her profile on the Yorkshire Champions Group website said: “I am a barrister specialising in crime and currently practise on the North Eastern Circuit. I am instructed on a wide range of criminal law matters including sexual offences, violent offences and drugs.”
In 2023, Ms Akhtar was arrested herself, accused of using her professional contacts to help identify the gunman who had shot Mr Ali.
At her five-day trial in Manchester last month, the court was told that having used her contacts to help discover who the gunman was, Ms Akhtar then conspired with Mr Ali in plans to attack him.
The CPS said: “On 15 September 2021, the defendant – a qualified barrister – spoke with her client Tabish Ali over the telephone where she suggested to Tabish Ali that they locate and cause serious harm to an individual responsible for shooting Tabish Ali the day before.”
Mr Ali went on to be jailed for life for his part in the shooting of a rival drug gang member in Huddersfield in 2020.
The court did not hear any evidence suggesting why the barrister acted in this way.
Companies House records show that Ms Akhtar’s chambers, which operated from a PO Box in Huddersfield, was struck off in May this year but its website [1] is still live.