INTERPRETERS handling immigration cases were not paid by a Bradford law firm involved in an alleged £600,000 fraud, a court heard.

Abigail Solomon, a former immigration case worker with Chambers solicitors said she became aware of problems over payment of interpreters when she worked there in the latter half of 2011.

She told a jury yesterday she spoke in person to principal solicitor Mohammed Ayub about an interpreter Maria.

“She was very upset she had not been paid fees for jobs,” said Miss Solomon.

She added: “His manner was blunt. He said she’s not getting paid.”

The prosecution at Sheffield Crown Court claims Ayub, 55, and his brother Riaz, 48, formed a fictitious agency to claim almost £600,000 in interpreters' legal fees.

It is alleged that the brothers and Chambers employee Neil Frew, 48, created a sham company Legal Support Services to dishonestly claim money from the Legal Aid Agency.

Tesfay Behane, an Eritrean who became a British citizen in 2013 said in a witness statement that he did “two or three” jobs as an interpreter for Chambers at its Wakefield office.

He should have been paid £20 an hour plus travel expenses but his invoice was never paid.

“I have never received any cheque from Chambers for the jobs I have done. In total I was owed approximately £100.”

He spoke to an Asian male at the firm who said a cheque would be in the post but it never arrived. “I didn’t pursue the matter and am still owed,” he said.

Charlotte Buckley, another former immigration case worker at Chambers, told the jury that interpreters she booked were told to send their invoices to Mr Ayub.

Shown an interpreter’s timesheet she said she had never seen it before and had not seen such documents in any files kept at the Wakefield office where she worked in early 2011.

She was friends with an interpreter called Fatima and had helped her sort out an outstanding payment.

Miss Buckley agreed with Philip Hackett QC, for Ayub, that she had suggested to police investigating the alleged fraud that interpreters were not being paid in “timely” fashion.

Both Miss Solomon and Miss Buckley said they had never heard of CSS or used it as an interpreters’ agency during their spells at Chambers and neither had heard of Mohammed Riaz.

Mr Behane said he had never worked for LSS or heard of it and did not know Mohammed Riaz.

“I do not know anyone by this name,” he said.

Miss Solomon, who initially worked for six weeks at Chambers’ Huddersfield office before moving to the Bradford office said their clients came from an asylum accommodation centre in the town.

“I was told to sign up as many new clients as possible by Ayub,” she told the court.

The clients were funded by Legal Aid and “not many” spoke English so interpreters were required which she helped arrange.

Questioned by Mr Hackett she denied lying about interpreters not being paid to “put the boot in” to Mohammed Ayub. When it was suggested she had “invented” the story she replied: “Not at all.”

Mohammed Ayub, of Aireville Drive, Shipley, Mohammed Riaz, of Southfield Square, Manningham, and Frew, of Hoyle Court Drive, Baildon deny conspiracy to defraud.

The trial continues.

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