Rupesh Karawadra
Employee
829161

Decision - Employee-related decision

Outcome: Control of non-qualified staff (Section 43 / Section 99 order)

Outcome date: 26 April 2024

Published date: 18 December 2024

Firm details

Firm or organisation at time of matters giving rise to outcome

Name: Axiom Ince Limited

Address(es): 101 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 1FA

Firm ID: 628201

Outcome details

This outcome was reached by SRA decision.

Decision details

Who does this decision relate to?

Rupesh Karawadra whose last known address was in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

A person who was involved in a legal practice but is not a solicitor.

Summary of decision

The SRA has put restrictions on where and how Mr Karawadra can work in an SRA regulated firm. It was found that:

Mr Karawadra, who is not a solicitor, was involved in a legal practice and has occasioned or been a party to an act or default which involved such conduct on his part that it is undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice in any of the ways described in the order below.

The facts of the case

On or around, and between 1 and 4 August 2023, during the course of a forensic investigation conducted by the SRA, Mr Karawadra failed to take action about, including report to us, suspicious activity relating to the activity of sharing bank statements from one party to another.

Decision on outcome

An order pursuant to section 43(2) of the Solicitors Act 1974 was imposed as Mr Karawadra’s conduct meant that it was undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior approval. The order pursuant to section 43 was made with immediate effect from the date of the letter or email notifying Mr Karawadra of this decision. Mr Karawadra’s conduct was serious because while the SRA was investigating his firm, Axiom Ince Limited, he agreed to forward by email bank statements belonging to A to B and later return them to A in circumstances that were suspicious and he failed to take appropriate action alerting others to that activity. He transmitted unaltered/untampered statements and then transmitted them back when they were altered/tampered with. It was found that

Mr Karawadra was partly involved in the systematic falsification of banking documents.

Mr Karawadra was also ordered to pay costs of £600.

What our Section 43 order means

1. no solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with his practice as a solicitor;
2. no employee of a solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the solicitor's practice;
3. no recognised body shall employ or remunerate him;
4. no manager or employee of a recognised body shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the business of that body;
5. no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to be a manager of the body; and
6. no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to have an interest in the body

except in accordance with the SRA’s prior written permission.