BSB: agreement reached with CPS barrister
A barrister who failed to pay a fine and costs imposed by a disciplinary tribunal and then ignored the Bar Standards Board’s (BSB) efforts to contact him for four years, has been suspended from practising.
A new tribunal suspended Tiyani Behanzin, an unregistered barrister who was called in July 2006, for a minimum of 12 months until he pays the outstanding financial orders.
Mr Behanzin did not pay £1,335, imposed for previous disciplinary offences in 2011. These related to holding himself out as a barrister in connection with the provision of legal services, when he did not have a practising certificate.
The BSB sent him letters and e-mails over four years, to which he did not reply, first in relation to a complaint against him, and then in relation to “information required for the purpose of [the BSB’s] regulatory function”, the tribunal said.
The tribunal ordered two 12-month suspensions for the two charges relating to not cooperating with the regulator. The suspension was ordered to remain in place until the outstanding money was paid. The decision is currently open to appeal.
BSB director of professional conduct Sara Jagger said: “Sanctions imposed by the tribunal and correspondence sent by the BSB are to be taken seriously. Mr Behanzin’s refusal to cooperate with his regulator is a serious breach of his duty as a barrister, and the tribunal’s decision to suspend him reflects this.”
Meanwhile, unregistered barrister Angela Hughes has accepted a reprimand from the BSB for providing “false and misleading information in applying for the post of Crown Prosecutor in stating that she fulfilled the necessary qualification for the role when she did not”.
Ms Hughes, who was called in November 2003, was also found to have worked as a Crown Prosecutor for a year to February 2015 “without holding the necessary qualification to carry out that role”.
The case was a ‘determination by consent’, an alternative method of concluding some disciplinary proceedings without needing to go to a tribunal.
How is a barrister who essentially entered the CPS dishonestly (and accepts that) still allowed to be employed by the CPS making prosecution decisions about others lives.