A police station accredited representative who made offensive remarks about transgender people and immigrants in the presence of police officers and detainees has been banned from working in a legal practice without the regulator’s permission.
In a regulatory settlement agreement published yesterday, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said it was undesirable for non-solicitor Martin Mannish to be involved in legal practice without the regulator’s consent and imposed a section 43 order.
Mannish was registered with the Legal Aid Agency as a police station accredited representative, providing legal advice to detainees, ensuring that their statutory entitlements were met and preparing them for interviews under caution.
The agreement reveals that Mannish described to a police officer a transgender detainee he previously represented as a ‘he, she, him, her, it, thing’. He referred to immigrants as ‘boat people’. He told an officer he ‘does not do Trans or Black Lives Matter’. He repeatedly swore in front of a detainee and an officer about a situation involving another person he was representing at a different police station.
By working in the name of solicitors, the SRA said Mannish was expected to act with high ethical standards. By making offensive comments in the presence of detainees and officers, Mannish ‘disregarded those whose interests he had a specific duty to support’.
‘The public’s trust and confidence in solicitors and legal services is undermined when individuals fail to act with integrity and in a way that supports equality, diversity and inclusion,’ the SRA said.
Mannish agreed that his conduct meant it was undesirable to be involved in legal practice without the SRA’s permission. He agreed to publication of the regulatory settlement agreement and was ordered to pay the SRA’s investigation costs of £675.
