Attorney accused of stealing law degree

A BIZARRE case involving a wellknown 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 that he was born in 1944 and the other that he was born 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 from his position as an attor- ney, the cases Patel presided over could be severely affected to the extent that they would 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. This could negatively impact the cases he was involved in – he might have prejudiced his cases, which would cause them to be set aside,” said Booth.

Patel, 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.

Patel also claims to have qualifications from UWC, the University of South Africa and the University of Pretoria. He says he obtained his Baccalaureus Procurationis from UWC in 1994.

The Cape Law Society alleged that Patel had stolen his qualifications by assuming the identity of a dead man, a “Patel Muhamed” – a legitimately registered lawyer who died in 2006.

No date has yet been finalised for Patel’s case to be heard.