Solicitors' Tribunal finds ACS Law's Crossley guilty on seven counts

The controversial owner of ACS Law, Andrew Crossley has been banned from practising law for two years and costs of £76,326.55 have been awarded against him.

Facing the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) yesterday, the disgraced solicitor, who ran a speculative invoicing scheme sending letters to thousands of people accusing them of illegally downloading copyright material, was found guilty of all seven charges levelled against him; including using his position as a solicitor to take, or attempt to take "unfair advantage of other persons".

It was also revealed during yesterday's hearing that Crossley had previously been asked by the Solicitors' Regulatory Authority (SRA), which brought the charges against him, to stop operating this scheme days after he began; but he refused.

The scheme eventually unravelled after a number of hearings before Judge Birss in the Patents Court. The failure to get the cases through judicial scrutiny led to Crossley declaring himself bankrupt last year and closed down his firm ACS Law.

Joe Hickster, who was a target of the Crossley scheme ran a campaign giving legal advice to others in the same position as himself. He told Computeractive that he felt Crossley's ban should have been longer.

"Whilst it is good that this man has been taken out of the legal profession for 2 years, it is not truly an adequate punishment for someone who has caused so much pain and heartache to many over the last few years with his arrogant unfounded accusations and incompetent business practice.

"Although we realise it renders him unemployable temporarily, it would have been better for the legal authorities to have made this permanent for the sake of public confidence in the legal profession"

In his own defence Crossley said yesterday that he was unable to find legal work because he is considered a high insurance risk and because of the bad publicity from his scheme.

James Bench, of consumer group Being Threatened said, "Today's judgement will provide some satisfaction to those innocent members of the public that Mr Crossley relentlessly bullied in the operation of this scheme.

"As the tribunal heard today - the SRA had grave doubts about Mr Crossley's scheme - sufficient to ask that he stop just three days after he began. The arrogance he demonstrated by continuing until he was forced to cease as a result of bankruptcy and now suspension from the legal profession is a cause for concern.

"It was clear to all that Mr Crossley's ‘speculative invoicing' scheme lacked any legal merit and was founded on purported evidence which was untested and patently - and demonstrably - unreliable.

"It is a disappointing indictment of the legal regulatory systems that it has taken almost three years to finally draw this matter to a close. We expect lessons to have been learned."

The original seven charges brought against Crossley by the SRA were that he:

Allowed his independence to be compromised;

Acted contrary to the best interests of his clients;

Acted in a way that was likely to diminish the trust the public places in him or in the legal profession;

Entered into arrangements to receive contingency fees for work done in prosecuting or defending contentious proceedings before the Courts of England and Wales except as permitted by statute or the common law;

Acted where there was a conflict of interest in circumstances not permitted, in particular because there was a conflict with those of his clients;

Used his position as a Solicitor to take or attempt to take unfair advantage of other persons being recipients of letters of claim either for his own benefit or for the benefit of his clients;

And acted without integrity in that he provided false information in statements made to the Court.

The SRA withdrew the seventh charge because it accepted that there had been no deliberate intention to mislead. However it replaced it with another allegation saying Crossley had not taken sufficient measures to provide protection from loss of personal data after his website was hacked into during September 2010.

Crossley was also fined £1,000 for this breach by the Information Commissioner's Office last year.