A barrister who was struck off after he accidentally got a client's mother-in-law deported has been jailed over his shoddy advice for immigrants.

33-year-old Micheal Wainwright was disbarred in 2015 after he was found to have lied about submitting an application to the UK Border agency to give his client's mother-in-law leave to remain in the UK. His failure meant the deadline to appeal the decision to refuse her permission to stay was missed and she was deported to China. 

  "Take my mother-in-law. No, seriously - take my mother-in-law." 

After being struck off, Wainwright turned to business and established a legal services company called Crested Associates advising vulnerable immigrants. Without having undergone the requisite training and registration, he ran cases, acted as a McKenzie friend and failed to make more applications to the Home office and immigration tribunals.

Having presumably caused the deportation of dozens more innocent mothers-in-law, Wainwright was sentenced to 22 months in jail by Judge Christopher Hehir, who lambasted his "flagrant disregard" for the standards of the profession and the orders of the courts and the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal. Hehir said, "You persistently and in a very sophisticated fashion held yourself out to vulnerable and often desperate people as somebody who could help them with their immigration issues", adding that "charlatans like you take advantage of their difficulties and desperation".

Wainwright was also ordered to pay compensation of £2,858 to be split between his duped clients which won't go very far, actually.
 
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