Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Canada Border Services Agency
March 30, 2023 - 4:30 PM
A B.C. immigration lawyer who was sentenced to 22 months in jail for forging medical notes has been barred from practicing law.
According to a March 15 Law Society of B.C. decision, Roger Balraj Singh Bhatti agreed to resign from the Law Society and never to reapply.
The veteran lawyer who became licenced in 1984, was found to have created false medical notes which he would then present to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
"In relation to seven client matters, in order to procure an adjournment of proceedings he knowingly attempted to deceive the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada by filing six medical notes... which he knew were false," the decision reads.
According to court documents, the Canada Border Services Agency began investigating Bhatti in 2012 based on a tip that he was offering assistance, some of it illegal, to Hungarian nationals looking to claim refugee status in Canada.
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Almost a decade later in 2020, Bhatti was charged with 20 counts of forgery and misrepresentation. In May 2022 he was sentenced to 22 months jail.
According to the decision the conduct took place between 2002 and 2014, during which time Bhatti ran a busy law practice representing clients seeking refugee status in Canada.
The decision says he regularly appeared as a lawyer in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Along with the sick notes he also submitted fake police reports, medical reports, and a death certificate as evidence for his clients’ refugee claims to the Immigration and Refugee Board.
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Bhatti signed a consent agreement with the Law Society confirming that he would never apply to practice law again.
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