Referral to the Legal Ombudsman
from: Shantanu Panigrahi <shanpanigrahi3000@gmail.com>
to: Ravina Karir <ravina@olivessolicitors.com>
cc: Phso Enquiries <phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk>
date: 2 Dec 2023, 16:07
subject: Referral to the Legal Ombudsman
mailed-by: gmail.com
To
Olives Solicitors
I have reported Olives Solicitors for several months to the Legal Ombudsman who have said that your response to the possible direct resolution of this complaint is essential before the Legal Ombudsman may be able to consider the Case.
You were aware since 20 March 2023 or thereabouts that the legal process had begun against me and Kent Police could charge me with Stalking or Malicious Communications or both offences at any time of its choosing. This hurdle that I face is not overcome yet and will not be until an official document is received by me from the North Kent Magistrates Court, Kent Police or yourselves.
Olives Solicitors were reported to the Legal Ombudsman for conspiracy as Duty Solicitor with Kent Police prior to its 19 April 2023 letter to me as attached (FrOlivesSolicitorsletter19April2022.docx) and this is borne out by the fact of your never once sending me an emailed acknowledgement of 35-40 emails that I sent you, let alone a considered reply to let me know what is happening.
I have therefore been left unrepresented at North Kent Magistrates Court for the Trial Hearing of 10 November 2023, 2 pm that I had to attend in the absence of Phillipa Beswick of Olives Solicitors and am still waiting for the Full Written Reasons from the Court that took into account the fullness of my mitigating factors hitherto.
Yours sincerely
Shantanu Panigrahi
3 Hoath Lane
Wigmore
Gillingham
Kent
ME8 0SL
United Kingdom
Tel 07967789619
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FrOlivesSolicitorsletter19April2022.docx
Olives Solicitors
Our Reference:
Your Reference:
Date: 19th April 2023
Private and Confidential
Mr Shantanu Panigrahi
3 Hoath Lane
Gillingham
Kent ME8 0SL
Dear Sirs
Re: Criminal Law Matter
I write further to your attendance at Medway Police Station on the 28th March 2023 to thank you for instructing Olives Solicitors in connection with your arrest, detention, interview and charge of Malicious Communications. We confirm that we shall be pleased to act for you in the matter.
This letter, and the accompanying terms and conditions of business, set out the basis under which we will carry out the work on your behalf. They explain how we we will manage your matter and detail the people who will be responsible for the work. They also set out how your case will be funded. Please do read both the letter and terms of business carefully, but do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries or would like to discuss any term further.
Responsibility for your matter
I am a Trainee Solicitor and shall have day-to-day conduct and supervision of your mater, under the supervision of Mr Dotun Ogunfolu who is the principle of the firm with overall responsibility. I can usually be contacted by telephone on the number at the top of this letter between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm on weekdays. There may be occasion when I am not available to speak to you directly, if this occurs, you will be able to leave a message with my assistant who will help you with any queries.
Scope of work
The work that we will undertake for you will include:
To advise and represent you in relation to all aspects of an investigation into alleged offences involving you, including: obtaining your instructions; attending upon, liaising and communicating on your behalf with the police as reasonably necessary; applying for negotiating the condition of any police and/or court bail; advising upon any proposed non-charge outcomes or the available and appropriate plea/s to any charg/s; explaining and advising upon all applicable legislation and procedure.
AND
To advise and represent you in a plea of gulty or defence of the charge/s against you, including: obtaining your instructions; all necessary court appearances, considering and advising upon prosecution papers and any other evidence; attending upon, liaising and connunicating on your behalf with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service as reasonably necessary; applying for and negotiating the conditions of any bail; advising upon, preparing and making appropriate submissions on sentence; advising upon, preparing and presenting any appropriate evidence in support of mitigation; contacting liaising with and obtaining references/statements reports from any witnesses; explaining and advising upon all applicable legislation and procedure, including the nature and effect of any sentence and as to the merit and grounds for any possible appeal. If required: briefing and instructing counsel if agreed.
Funding
As already explained to you at the police station, we are acting for you under the Government Legal Representation Scheme. We are providing you advice and assistance at the police station under the scheme known as Police Station Attendance Scheme. This provides you with free legal advice whilst you have been arrested or have to attend a police station during a criminal investigation. Every time.
I can confirm that should you be charged with an offence, we are able in certain instances to act for you under the government’s legal aid scheme. In order to make an application for legal aid funding, we will require evidence of your income and expenditure, and details of any government benefits you receive. The application will also require details of family circumstances such as any partner or children currently living with you. In order to progress the application please ensure this information is made available to us as soon as possible. If granted a Legal Aid Representation Order you may not have to pay a contribution to the cost of your case. In this circumstances, it will not be necessary for you to be given an estimate of thelikely total costs of matters. However, you should be aware that should you be convicted of the charge, the court will make an order that you pay the prosecutions costs and any compensation, if applicable.
Automatic legal aid funding
Legal aid applicants aged under 18 or those in receipt of government benefits do not need to pay for the work we do in the magistrates’ court or the Crown Court. The relevant benefits are
- Income Support,
- Income-Based Job Seeker’s Allowance,
- Universal Credit,
- Guaranteed State Pension Credit and
- Income-related Employment and Support Allownance.
A copy of the National Insurance Number is required in oreder to confirm the government benefits.
Eligibility considerations in other CasesThe decision to award legal aid is based on the details of the case, called the Interests of Justice Test (Considerations of issues like any previous convictions, the nature of the offence and the risk of custody), and the financial situation, called the Means Test (consideration of your financial circumstances including household income, outgoings and expenses, any capital and equity, and any family circumstances).
What Does the Legal Representation Order Cover
Unless otherwise specified the Order will cover preparation of your case from commencement to conclusion including representation at Court during the proceedings. In addition, at the Crown Court, the order will allow us to instruct a barrister on your behalf. The Order will further cover the fess of experts, interpreters and other disbursements incurred in your case.
You have a legal duty to inform us or the court of any changes to your financial circumstances. We must also inform you about the possible withdrawal of your Legal Representation. The Legal representation maybe withdrawn if during the course of the proceedings, you give us wrong or misleading information or unreasonable instruction or you fail to co-operate with our reasonable request causing us to withdraw from acting for you.
Crown Court – Recovery of Defence Costs Order
If your case goes to the Crown Court for trial you will not automatically qualify for legally aided representation once you have completed an application form. After you have been means tested, you may have to pay towards the cost of your defence. This could be from your income while the case is ongoing and/or from your capital, if you are convicted.
You will be asked to provide evidence of your income and assets. If you do not, your payments could be increased which would result in you paying more towards your defence costs. If you do not tell the truth on your legal aid application about your income, assets and expenditure you could be prosecuted.
You will not have to pay towards the costs of your case if you are under 18 when you make your application or if you receive any of the following benefits: income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, guaranteed state pension credit or income related employment and support allowance.
You may have to pay towards the costs if your monthly disposable income is above a certain level. If this is the case, you will receive a Contribution Order from the court and you will have to make payments as required under the Order. The first payment will be due within 28 days of your case being committed, sent or transferred for trial.
You must tell the court about any changes to your financial circumstances during your case because a change may affect the amount you have to pay towards your defence costs. If you don’t think you can afford to pay, or think that a mistake has been made, you can ask for a review of the amount the court has told you to pay.
At the end of the case, if you are found not guilty, any payments youhave made will be refunded with interest. If you paid late or not at all and action was taken against you, the costs of this actionwill be deducted from the refund.
If you are found guilty, you may have to pay towards your defence costs from any Capital assets you may have. This would only apply if:
. You have £30,000 or more of assets, for example: savings, equity in property, shares or Premium Bonds; and
. Any payments you have already made have not covered your total defence costs.
You will be told at the end or your case if you have to make a payment from capital.
Discharge and Revocation of the representation Order
Although we are acting for you under the representation order, in some circumstances, for example as stated above the Legal Service Commission may discharge or revoke the order. If the order is discharged you will be liable for all your costs from the start of the case because you will be treated as if you had never been legally aided in the first place. If you have any questions regarding the above then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Consenting to Audit Inspection
As oart of our Contract requirements with the Legal Aid Agency, we are obliged to carry out an audit inspection of our files. This may include your file at a later stage once your case has come to a conclusion. If you do not wish for your file to be subject to an Audit Inspection by a regulatory organisation, then please let us know. If you do not inform us, we will assume that you are happy for your case to be inspected.
Privacy Policy
Oives Solicitors take data privacy seriously and when we process your personal data we are processing it in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For more information on what type of data we collect, the basis for doing so, what we do with your data and other related questions, information is available at www.olivessolicitors.com/privacy-policy/ or you can request a coy of our privacy policy and we would make same available to you.
Data protection
We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:
. undating and enhancing client records;
‘ analysis to help us manage our practice;
. statutory returns;
. legal and regulatory compliance.
Our use of that information is submect to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold on you.
Cloud Computing
We use cloud storage for client files. Our cloud software provider is LEAP. LEAP’s cloud infrastructure is provided and maintained by industry leading cloud-platform provider Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services demonstrates a commitment to information security at every level of the orgainisation and complies with internatially recognised standards, the EU Data Protection Directive, Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you object to your files/other details being stored in this way, please let us know.
Our Service
We aim to offer you an efficient and effective service so that you will have confidence in us. At Olives Solicitors, we are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care.
We will update you by telephone and in writing with progress on your matter on a regular basis and as often as necessary. We will communicate with you in plain language.
Complaints
We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are however unhappy about any aspect of the service, please contact the caseworker dealing with your matter in the first instance so that we can do our best to resolve the problem. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact Dotun Ogunfolu who is the Principal of the firm and to whom any final issues can be reported.
We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman. We have a procedure in place that details how we handle complaints which is available on request sent to us in writing. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint.
If we are unable to resolve matters to your satisfaction within eight weeks, or there are exceptional reasons for not waiting for this period, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman in writing by telephone or email respectively: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ; Tel: 0300 555 0333; Minicom: 0300 555 1777 or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, to consider your complaint.
Please note that the complaint must be referred to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of the written response from our complaints manager.
You have an overall time limit of referring any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman of
i. Six years from the act/omission that you are dissatisfied with; or
ii. Three years from when you reasonabley have known there was a reason to complain.
In some circumstances you may also be able to seek redress from our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page)
How you can help us
Please provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions and all documentation required to deal with your matter in a timely manner.
Thank you once again for your instructions an dshould you have any questions regarding the above and/or the attached terms and conditions of business, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours Sincerely
(Signed: Olives)
Ravina Karir
OLIVES SOLICITORS
Direct Email: ravina@olivessolicitors.com
2 Batchelor Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BJ
Tel: 0330 948753 Fax: 01634 753548
Email: info:olivessolicitors.com
 
Olives Solicitors
Our Reference:
Your Reference:
Date: 19th April 2023
Private and Confidential
Mr Shantanu Panigrahi
3 Hoath Lane
Gillingham
Kent ME8 0SL
Dear Sirs
Re: Your Criminal Law Matter at Medway Police Station
I write to confirm the outcome of your arrest and interview by police at Medway Police Station on 28th March 2023 when you were represented by Philippa Beswick of Olives Solicitors
You were questioned for the offences of malicious communications
Your Instructions
Your instructions were that you are not the sender of any emails and your account must have been hacked
Our Advice
We explained the elements of the alleged offence and we explained the usual police station procedure and you rights as a suspect in police custody.
We told you that after the interview, the police have a number of options:
1) to take no further action against you,
2) to caution you.
3) To charge you to court with an offence, or
4) To give you bail to return to the police station on another day whiles they make further enquiries
We informed you about the disclosure made by the police and that you were to be interviewed under caution. We explained the caution to you in the three parts as follows:
1. pointing out that you have the right to remain silent
2. explaining adverse inference to you that, if you have a defence or reasonable explanation and refuse to give it when being questioned, should the matter proceed to court and you decide to give the explanation the court may not believe you, in the absence of a reasonable excuse; and
3. anything you say may be used in evidence.
You were advised to advance denials in interview and answer the questions.
Outcome
You have been Bailed to Return to Medway Police Station on 18th June 2023 at 5pm
Should you fail to return on bail to the police station when advised to do so then you could be charged with an offence of failing to answer your bail contrary to the Bail Act.
Action to be taken
To assist us in carrying out the work as efficiently as possible, please could you ensure that all information provided is to the best of your knowledge complete, accurate and up to date. Please could you also notify us of any changes or variations to that information which may arise after the date it is passed to us and of any new circumstances that might be relevant to the work that we have agree to do for you.
Please let me know if my understanding of your instructions, as detailed above, is in any way incorrect or if you require further clarification on any issue.
Yours Sincerely
(Signed: Olives)
Ravina Karir
OLIVES SOLICITORS
Direct Email: ravina@olivessolicitors.com
2 Batchelor Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BJ
Tel: 0330 948753 Fax: 01634 753548
Email: info:olivessolicitors.com
____________________________________________________________________
Automatic reply: [External] Referral to the Legal Ombudsman
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from: Phso Enquiries <Phso.Enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk>
to: Shantanu Panigrahi <shanpanigrahi3000@gmail.com>
date: 2 Dec 2023, 16:13
subject: Automatic reply: [External] Referral to the Legal Ombudsman
Signed by: ombudsman.org.uk
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