Conman posed as solicitor (From Watford Observer)

Conman posed as solicitor

6:10pm Saturday 16th August 2008

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A “CRUEL and heartless” conman fleeced vulnerable immigrants out of tens of thousands of pounds by posing as a Watford solicitor.

Max Kingsley, 60, faces a lengthy jail sentence after he was convicted at the Old Bailey on Monday of providing immigration advice when not qualified to do so.

The Iranian-born crook prayed on 12 victims desperate to avoid deportation or those applying for British citizenship by posing as an expert immigration lawyer between April 2001 and February 2007.

Kingsley, of Margate, Kent, used headed notepaper from Seakens Solicitors in Station Road and immigrants from Jamaica, Lithuania, China and Iran were charged up to £5,000 for minimal and shoddy advice.

The jury heard during the three-week trial that Kingsley, known to his unsuspecting victims as a “professor of immigration”, charged one Algerian man £700 just to send off his application for British citizenship.

In another case he fell asleep during one of his client’s meetings at the Home Office.

Accredited advisors, the court heard, must be registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). Kingsley had never been.

Judge John Price warned him he faced a lengthy custodial sentence.

He said: “You were cruel and heartless and gave advice when you should not have done so.”

Kingsley, who was cleared of four similar charges, faces sentence on September 11.

Seakens Solicitors were unaware of Kingsley’s activities.

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