Attorney accused of stealing degree

Mohamed Ismail Patel

Mohamed Ismail Patel

Published Dec 4, 2016

Share

Cape Town - A bizarre case involving a well-known attorney, accused of stealing the law degree of a man who died in 2006, will be heard before the Western Cape High Court.

Mohamed Ismail Patel faces being struck from the roll. According to court documents, he has two identity numbers and two birth dates, one showing he was born in 1944 and the other in 1949.

The allegation came to light while Patel was in the middle of a R200 million business scam case, the court documents show.

Cape Law Society chairman William Booth said in addition to the possibility of being stripped of his position as an attorney, the cases Patel presided over could be severely impacted to the extent that they could be declared “null and void”.

“If he stole the identity of a dead lawyer, he could be in contravention of the Attorneys Act. It is fraud to pretend that you are an attorney. People paid him to represent them, never mind him being in charge of millions of rand,” said Booth.

Patel, who is also known as Patel Muhamed, claims he is the national secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Black Insolvency Practitioners in South Africa and deals in cases involving liquidations. In one of the cases involving Patel that has been highlighted, Absa Bank - a secured creditor in five estates listed in court papers - raised the alarm after no money was paid to them for the liquidation of the listed estates.

“Our client’s concern is that none of these estates have received payment of any secured award, despite the fact that at least one of the estates dates back as far as 2008 despite the fact that the properties have been transferred and it appears that liquidation and distribution accounts have been drawn, no dividends have been received,” the court document read.

Patel also claims to have qualifications from the University of the Western Cape, Unisa and the University of Pretoria.

According to Patel, he procured his Baccalaureus Procurationis Degree from UWC in 1994. The Cape Law Society alleged that Patel stole his qualifications by assuming the identity of a dead man, a “Patel Muhamed” - a legitimately registered lawyer who died in 2006. Court papers explain that the Managed Integrity Evaluation, UWC and the South African Qualifications Authority could not find anyone with the two identity numbers provided by Patel as holding a degree in databases.

The Chief Master of the High Court wrote a letter to Patel expressing concern and suspicion about never having seen his original degree, only a document identified as a certified copy - which was certified by his practice partner.

He was asked to attend an inquiry on November 23 last year to “clear up the matter”, but instead decided to launch two high court applications against the Chief Master of the High Court to halt proceedings. He was unsuccessful but secured a postponement.

The Cape Law Society also interdicted Patel from practising as an attorney, pending the court’s decision on striking him from the roll.

Weekend Argus

Related Topics: