England: Lawyer struck off after lying about cancer treatment and forging doctor’s letter

Soham Panchamiya, who had previously been treated for cancer, told his manager at Reed Smith that the illness had returned and that he needed to take a week off work for treatment. To support the claim, he produced what purported to be a letter from his doctor and submitted it to the firm’s HR department.

The document was later flagged as suspicious after HR staff noticed a number of anomalies, including inconsistent font sizes and spelling errors. When questioned, Mr Panchamiya maintained that the letter was genuine.

His account unravelled, however, after his line manager spoke directly to his doctor, who confirmed that the report was not authentic. Confronted with that information, Mr Panchamiya admitted he had lied and was suspended from his role in November 2023.

In mitigation, he told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) that a series of “destabilising life events” – including the death of his father the previous year – had led to “unrecognised mental health issues, which manifested in impaired emotional regulation and impulsive choices”.

The tribunal rejected that explanation. In its ruling, it said Mr Panchamiya’s circumstances did not excuse his conduct and criticised him for escalating the dishonesty rather than correcting it.

The SDT said: “Members of the public, notwithstanding their sympathy for his personal circumstances, would be extremely concerned that a solicitor had lied about a serious health condition in order to take leave from work, and thereafter had compounded that lie with further untrue statements, going so far as to fabricate medical evidence in support of that lie.”

It added that he had “compounded his initial lie” by forging the document instead of taking several opportunities to come clean.

Mr Panchamiya has been struck off the roll of solicitors and ordered to pay £22,000 in costs arising from the 2023 incident.