Barrister who forged Baroness Hale's signature struck off by BSB
A former Middle Temple barrister has been struck off by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) for concocting a web of “tortuous deceit” over a “phantom” £1m payout to his client.
Baroness Hale
Alexander Mercouris broke down in tears at the BSB disciplinary tribunal as he admitted bringing the profession into disrepute by forging Supreme Court Justice Baroness Hale’s signature and claiming that Supreme Court president Lord Phillips had tried to blackmail him.
The ex-Citizens Advice Bureau employee had worked in the Royal Courts of Justice for 12 years before being called to the bar in 2006.
In October 2009 he offered to represent Lorna Jamous in a damages claim against Westminster Council over a care hearing involving her son Tariq.
Today the BSB’s counsel, Stephen Mooney of Bristol’s Albion Chambers, told the tribunal that the barrister-client relationship went from “supportive and helpful” to “bizarre, unhelpful and profoundly dishonest”.
The tribunal heard that Jamous had been offered a without prejudice £5,000 settlement by the local authority, but Mercouris told her he could take further action to get her hundreds of thousands of pounds. She accrued debts based on the promise of a future windfall.
Mooney told the hearing that there was never any litigation and that Mercouris “embarked on ever more bizarre assertions to hide the truth”.
These included fabricated meetings with barristers and then a forged letter alleging to be from Baroness Hale expressing concern that the £983,000 payment from Westminster Council had not been forthcoming.
But there was no such settlement and Mercouris then talked Jamous out of attending a hearing where she would have discovered the truth, claiming her presence would “derail sensitive negotiations”.
Next he told her he had applied for an interim £50,000 payment, then tried to say that his brother had stolen the whole £983,000 payout, before coming up with what Mooney described as “the most peculiar allegation” of them all.
Mercouris claimed that after he made a phone call to try to recover the money, bogus police officers kidnapped him and took him to a meeting with Phillips SCJ. He alleged that Phillips SCJ told him to drop the claim in return for a £50,000 bribe, plus his debts and mortgage paid off.
Mercouris admitted making up the allegations that the senior law lord threatened to take away his 102-year-old grandmother and put her into care.
Mooney summarised the “extremely convoluted story” as a “tortuous deceit”. He said: “In my opinion, Mr Mercouris is not fully in control of his faculties.”
The panel then heard from Mercouris, who was diagnosed with depression after a nervous breakdown in the autumn of 2007 due to caring for his sick grandmother.
Representing himself, Mercouris broke down as he said: “Mr Mooney has referred to some of my actions as bizarre, I cannot dispute that. I’m very sorry. I worked very hard to become a barrister and disbarment is a bitter thought.”
He told the panel he was out of work, living alone with two cats.
He admitted five counts of bringing his profession into disrepute through misconduct and panel chairman Crawford Lindsay QC struck him off.
Lindsay called the “fantasy scheme” a “sad case”, adding: “These are extremely serious allegations where you deceived the client, involving two distinguished members of the judiciary.
“Mr Mercouris has worked for a number of years at the Citizens Advice Bureau in the Royal Courts of Justice and no doubt helped and gave advice to a number of people.
“He went completely off the rails.”
In a break in proceedings a member of the public who was attending the hearing began berating Mercouris about another case. She had been in contact with Jamous through the ’Solicitors From Hell’ website.
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Readers' comments (28)
Anonymous | 12-Mar-2012 4:01 pm
The part with Baroness Hale and then Lord Phillips and the kidnapping is a wonderful science fiction scenario!
Mr Mercouris has a wild imagination. I guess he now has a new career option!
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Anonymous | 12-Mar-2012 4:13 pm
This is interesting - according to this website
http://crimeofthecentury.wordpress.com/about/
Mercouris has been held prisoner by the Russian government
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Litigation Queen | 12-Mar-2012 4:42 pm
It's normally the client who is a complete nutter, not the lawyer!
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Anonymous | 12-Mar-2012 5:59 pm
all in all a rather sad story for all concerned
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Tony Sidwell | 12-Mar-2012 7:46 pm
I thought forgery was a criminal offence - surely this person should be reported to the police.
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Kim Philby | 12-Mar-2012 9:41 pm
I fear for the cats.
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Anonymous | 12-Mar-2012 10:45 pm
Something seems very fishy here. Should the consequences of forging the signature not include a jail term, rather than just being struck off? Given that the case seems to be brought by the kind of person that contributes to such hilarious websites as "Solicitors from Hell," I'd automatically be skeptical.
The link in the comments above even suggests that this guy has "got greedy and caused the financial crash worldwide!" We're onto something everyone!- tell the IMF!
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Anonymous | 13-Mar-2012 9:36 am
It's a pity he got struck off - I'm sure there would have been a career for him in the CPS. More seriously, he was, er, "Called to the Bar", but was he even properly in practice? The underlying scandal/tragedy here is the Bar Schools' business model, which involves taking in a majority of people who will never practise, a significant minority of whom are Walter Mitties. This is the tip of an iceberg...
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Shakespeare of the Inns of Court | 13-Mar-2012 12:09 pm
This sad tale, could be turned into quite an extraordinary west end face theatrical production, or a film... One has to admit, Mr Mercouris was more than just Mercurial, he entered the land of Grimms tales and span a web of incredible creativity, that got more and more entangled, albeit so unlikely. The theatrical version could extend matters to others, including the Russian government, who (see post above) are said on a website to have held him captive. You couldn't make it up....but he did, clearly.
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marshall whittaker | 13-Mar-2012 12:31 pm
Entertaining but also very sad and a complete waste of time
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Anonymous | 13-Mar-2012 5:45 pm
Many years ago, I volunteered at the CAB based in the RCJ. Alexander Mercouris was the full time CAB worker in charge of that office. That office has regularly been praised by the courts for the assistance it gives, particularly to litigants in person. Over the years Mr Mercouris must have helped thousands of people involved in all sorts of litigation. It appears that he has lately suffered some serious personal problems but in light of some of the comments here I wanted to let people know what a lot of good he has previously done. Which of us has done as much?
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val | 13-Mar-2012 10:43 pm
This poor fellow is very clearly "not fully in control of his faculties" and needs therapy, not striking off and footling tribunals
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Anonymous | 14-Mar-2012 5:48 am
Did the MP barrister(s) who cheated on their expenses also get struck off? or did they just pay back their 'illegal' expenses and carry on as normal? Does anyone know?
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Anonymous | 14-Mar-2012 7:08 am
I knew Alex -- I was one of his victims from the RCJ CAB, one of many I might add..
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Mike farrell | 14-Mar-2012 9:23 am
What an incredible tale, Lord Phillips as a grandmother stealing, kidnapping bribing gangster. Fantastic. The real victim is however the client for whom this character was pretending to work, and the BSB were clearly correct in their decision. Just goes to show how easily a position of trust can be abused.
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Anonymous | 14-Mar-2012 12:35 pm
Anonymous | 13-Mar-2012 @ 5:45 pm
Thank you for that comment; it's so easy to forget all the good a 'villain' did in the past and readily cast the first (or upteenth) stone. We should remember that Alex himself if a victim of some sort, least of all of himself, and that he too needs help, if nothing else.
I hope he's able to find his feet again some day.
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lorna jamous | 15-Mar-2012 0:10 am
I am Lorna Jamous and the former client (victim ) of Mr Mecrcouris and i must add not the only one. I agree that his crimes should be investigated by the police now the police have fresh evidence they should re-interview him regarding these crimes. There are other similar cases regarding Mr Mercouirs, yet mine is the only one which has been reported probably because of the BSB hearing on Monday . I was annoyed at the hearing when Mr Mercouris acting skills seemed to work very well on the panel when he appeared as the victim in all of this and the only apology which he made was to the panel and not me or my sons. I do hope that Justice will be done and I will not rest until he is made to answer to the criminal courts for his actions.
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lorna jamous | 15-Mar-2012 0:17 am
A victim? he is a crook who forged a Judges signiture and tried to blame it on me Lorna Jamous. He will be prosecuted through the criminal courts and i will make sure of this as i made sure he was struck off. Alex obviously had a motive for his lies and deception the RCJ are well aware of his lies as are the police and many others. If a bent Barrister gets sympathy because of his lies and crimes then God help us.
Lorna Jamous (fighter for Justice)
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Heather Soper | 15-Mar-2012 12:52 pm
I wholeheartedly support Lorna Jamous, Julie Knight and all his other victims. many people are depressed and have problems, that is no excuse to knowingly tell lies to deceive the people who went to see him for his help, some help, he just abused us!
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Heather Soper | 15-Mar-2012 1:26 pm
Like Lorna Jamous, Mr Mercouris told me not to attend court!
Had I done so I would have defended my case against my local authority and wouldn't have to deal with it now, 8 years later. Mr Mercouris told me that the local authority had quashed my case, that I didn't have to attend court. At the same time, he told the LCCC that my local authority HADN'T quashed the case.
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