It has been a long time coming, but insurance industry law firm Horwich Farrelly, alongside car insurer LV=, has managed to put some disreputable practices to a stop.
The company had set its sights on Dr Asef Zafar, who had been systematically falsifying witness statements, according to its investigations. Now, he has been struck off.
“After much hard work over a number of years in helping expose Dr Zafar’s Contempt of Court, we are delighted to see that the General Medical Council and the Professional Standards Authority for Health & Social Care have struck him off the medical register for his misconduct,” said managing partner Ronan McCann.
“We were incredibly disappointed with the fact that Dr Zafar received a suspended sentence originally hence why we appealed that decision and the Court of Appeal agreed. Further we reported this matter to the GMC and were pleased to see that they pursued this to strike off after the initial suspension. His conviction, suspension and now removal from the medical register serve as stark reminders to professionals that fabricating evidence in the pursuit of fraudulent insurance claims for personal gain will not go unpunished by the courts, nor the bodies that oversee them.”
It was back in October 2018 that Zafar was originally found guilty of contempt of court when he presented what the law firm described as “spurious” medical documents on behalf of a claimant amid a personal injury claim. The deception was exposed when the law firm accidentally submitted both the real report, that outlined an injury of one week, and an altered one, that outlined six-eight months of pain.
That led to Horwich Farrelly, acting on behalf of LV=, successfully appealing a decision in High Court. Zafar was originally given a suspended sentence of six months while a solicitor on the same case picked up a custodial sentence of 15 months for the same offence. This leniency was objected to by the insurer which feared it could be used as a precedent. Now, they have the result they had been chasing.
“This has been a long process, but incredibly important in sending a strong message to all professional enablers,” concluded Ronan McCann. “It should now be very clear to expert witnesses that if they lie in bringing a fraudulent claim then they should expect a custodial sentence, as well as a significant liability for costs and the loss of their professional status.”
