With a string of luxury cars in his driveway, a glittering summer party at City Hall and a list of footballer clients, there was no indication that anything was amiss in the life of the lawyer John Blavo.
Only recently his firm was fêted for excellence in the industry’s bible, The Legal 500 directory, so it is no wonder that lawyers were shocked when it was shut this week.
Scotland Yard confirmed last night that its fraud unit was investigating the activities of Mr Blavo’s firm, ranked by the Ministry of Justice as the second highest earning civil legal aid practice in England and Wales.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said that it had closed down the practice, which is based in a prestigious area of London but has 17 more offices across the country, because of suspicions that it had been “acting dishonestly”.
The Legal Aid Agency, which administers criminal and civil legal aid, initially reported Mr Blavo to police and terminated all its contracts. A spokesman said that the agency had identified “significant concerns” about claims from the firm.
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According to Companies House, the firm recorded a £11.1 million turnover in the year to 31 March 2014, with an after-tax profit of £1.2 million. Its turnover for the three months to 30 June this year was £3.3 million, with an after-tax profit of £300,000.
Mr Blavo, below, who is 54 and from Ghana, displayed all the trappings of someone who had risen to the top of his profession. The firm’s summer party was at City Hall, overlooking the Thames in central London, and various press clippings outline the charity work undertaken by Mr Blavo and his team of solicitors. Mr Blavo is also registered with the Football Association and previously blogged as the Football Lawyer for The Independent.
According to an interview on a football news website, his clients included Lauren, the former Arsenal star, and the Ghana international John Paintsil.
He lives with his wife, Lynne, 57, a former mental health nurse, in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Residents told how a fleet of luxury cars with personalised numberplates had taken up Mr Blavo’s driveway until last week. The sprawling house was maintained by a housekeeper and a gardener.
Neighbours said they had fallen out with the family over their extension works and noisy garden parties. One said: “We have seen evidence of enormous expenditure next door, not only the Bentley but the Lamborghini, Porsches, BMWs, Ferraris and Maseratis — hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cars — it seems they had no idea this was collapsing around them.”
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Mr Blavo did not respond to requests for a comment. In a statement this week, Blavo & Co said: “The firm has been advised, by the SRA, that it wishes to intervene. We have not been provided with an opportunity to make representations. We are currently taking legal advice and do not wish to make any further comments at this stage.”
Clients who turned up at the headquarters in John Street, central London, yesterday, found it shut. They said that they had been left without representation for impending cases. The locked front door was plastered in notices saying that the SRA had taken possession of all files and a solicitors’ firm had been appointed to take over.