Warning - do not use wolstenholmes solicitors

Catwoman8950

mjmal51 wrote: »

There is another thread on this and "Discovery" posted this
"Sorry have been too busy to get back sooner.
There are a few issues that I am trying to get clarified.

The firm certainly has not been trading for over 200 years under the current owners and may not have been in existence until a very short while ago. The individuals are regulated and in this case only 2 solicitors , the rest are assistants.

This whole set up was to trade initially and then shut down and disappear. As stated earlier, this is not the first time these individuals have performed in such manner albeit in a different industry."


So if this is right, and it rings true, then it is serious Fraud. If anyone has info on this it needs to be sent to the SRA immediately.
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/fraud-dishonesty.page

Wolstenholmes LLP was incorporated on 5th June 2006. Prior to that they were Wolstenholmes Rainer Macbeth and had been trading in various forms since 1818. However, it seems to be only this year from June onwards that major changes took place in their management structure. All the relevant documents are available from Companies House at GBP 1 each.

Catwoman8950

homelessmat wrote: »

Well it was definately the guy in the picture. He didn't give me his name, I only know based on what he looked like although he looked older/greyer and more drawn than the picture; I put that down to the stress of working for the firm. There were also two other women who came and let themselves into the office whilst I was sat there ringing my estate agent up to explain what was happening. I popped into the Estate Agents you metioned yesterday to see if they had any idea about what was going on, and it was the lady there that told me about the side door, which was very helpful.

I have no doubt you did see Bobby Shabbir but I wonder what he was doing there since he no longer officially has any association with Wolstenholmes?

homelessmat

Catwoman8950 wrote: »

I have no doubt you did see Bobby Shabbir but I wonder what he was doing there since he no longer officially has any association with Wolstenholmes?

I guess only Bobby Shabbir and possibly Imran Hussain know the answer to that question.
In terms of what happens next I guess we won't find that out until Tuesday when the SRA open again. There are details on the SRA site as to what may happen if they have intervened (I can't post a link as a new user, but type "sra intervention" into Google and there are plenty of articles).
I guess what we have to hope for is that they intervened before the client account was emptied. I don't know what happens in the situation where there has been fraud or the company has cancelled their professional indemnity insurance.

Catwoman8950

moongate wrote: »

the SRA have intervened today.

The latest news I have is that the SRA people couldn't gain access. They were waiting for Imran Hussain to turn up with the key and he didn't show.

FraudBuster

Just a thought, but the SRA may ask this site to delete the threads. Interested parties may like to keep copies.

homelessmat

Catwoman8950 wrote: »

The latest news I have is that the SRA people couldn't gain access. They were waiting for Imran Hussain to turn up with the key and he didn't show.

Surely it's now a police job then. Will wait in eager anticipation to see what Tuesday brings.

keiran

Who regulates the Solicitors' Regualtion Authority?

I have been in touch with them for about 3 weeks. Thye just kept saying that Wolstenholmes were open for business - This was even after the Birmingham office itself told everyone it was closing on 18 Dec

Thye kept referring me (and all enquirers) to the Legal Complaint Section, who , of course, know even less about what is going on with Wolstenholmes than they do. The LCS can only advice how to complain. This is something which we could all do without such an expensive team in existence

The SRA must have known for months what was happening - Why did they not take any action or even inform consumers? I say it is quite simply that they are, of course, bl***y laywers, who are protecting and defending their own , inferior species, bl***y laywers

I think Shakespeare was right when one of his characters said "First of all, we kill all the lawyers". I like the analogy of laywers being the Devil's own spawn. And I like the old joke "How can you tell if a lawyer is lying?" Answer - You see his lips moving!

Every time I have any dealings with lawyers, I feel have to go and get thoroughly scrubbed in the shower.

I do hope that this episode will bring into sharp focus the functions of the SRA. We need a concerted campaign including MPs, Watchdog, other consumer champions, etc to make them answerable.

I would happily take them all in boats and drown them in the Mid Atlantic

homelessmat

Whilst I don't agree with everything that "keiran" says above, the idea of making a co-ordinated campaign about this whole episode is an excellent idea. I see that the avenues open are:

1) MP's
2) Watchdog
3) The papers

It requires "people-power" however and individuals complaining to different organisations is not going to achieve the same impact as a co-ordinated effort. Look at the recent success of the Facebook campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to number 1.
So any thoughts on which of the 3 above options (and if it's option 3, which particular paper to target) that we should follow "en masse" would be appreciated and we can then effect a co-ordinated campaign.

higda202

Sounds like a good idea. Perhaps we need a slightly more organized way of keeping track of everyone/communicating. ?facebook group. ?suggestions. How many of us are there out there.

Catwoman8950

homelessmat wrote: »

Whilst I don't agree with everything that "keiran" says above, the idea of making a co-ordinated campaign about this whole episode is an excellent idea. I see that the avenues open are:

1) MP's
2) Watchdog
3) The papers

It requires "people-power" however and individuals complaining to different organisations is not going to achieve the same impact as a co-ordinated effort. Look at the recent success of the Facebook campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to number 1.
So any thoughts on which of the 3 above options (and if it's option 3, which particular paper to target) that we should follow "en masse" would be appreciated and we can then effect a co-ordinated campaign.

Option 3 - I would suggest the Daily Mail. They like to get their teeth into things. They also have a very useful reader's comments section after most articles on their website.