MD Towhidul Islam

Introduction

MD Towhidul Islam is a solicitor who was suspended for 12 months by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) after wrongly accessing Home Office visa records while working there as a caseworker and, at the same time, as a trainee solicitor at a London law firm. The tribunal found he acted out of a ‘misplaced and inappropriate’ curiosity about the progress of immigration cases in which he was personally involved, looking up records relating to clients of his firm, to family members and to someone he knew. The findings were regulatory findings made by the SDT, not criminal convictions. The tribunal itself found no evidence that the information he accessed was disclosed to any third party, and no indication that he intended to cause harm.

Background Information

Islam, 39, began working at the Home Office in August 2019 as an executive officer litigation caseworker, a role dealing with pre-action protocol letters and judicial review claims. On starting the job, he was warned by his line manager to treat data and personal information carefully, and told that access to the central system — which held information on all UK visa applications — was permitted only for limited purposes.

At the same time, Islam was already working as a trainee solicitor for London firm Waterstone Legal, representing individuals in respect of their visa applications to the Home Office and of judicial review applications against refusal decisions. He did not notify the Home Office that he remained employed as a trainee solicitor while working there, and the tribunal later found that, given the nature of his two roles, he should have appreciated the potential conflict of interest arising from his concurrent employment and should have disclosed that position to his line manager.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. The findings below were made by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which ordered Islam suspended for 12 months and then subject to conditions requiring Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) permission to work as a solicitor for a further 12 months. They are regulatory findings, not criminal convictions. The tribunal itself noted there was no evidence the accessed information was disclosed to any third party, and no finding that Islam intended to cause harm.

The tribunal found that Islam used his access to the Home Office’s central visa system to look up eight sets of records concerning people connected to him. Two of the files related to clients of Waterstone Legal, the firm where he was training; five related to family members; and one was the live file of someone he knew. Most of the eight applications he accessed were closed.

The SDT said Islam had a ‘misplaced and inappropriate’ curiosity over the progress of immigration cases with which he was personally involved. While there was no evidence that the information he accessed was disclosed to any third party, or that he intended to cause harm, the tribunal was satisfied that the potential for harm was readily foreseeable. Taken together with his failure to disclose his continuing traineeship, the case turned on a Home Office caseworker with access to visa records having personal involvement in the immigration matters behind some of those records, in circumstances his line manager had expressly warned against when he took up the role.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The tribunal ordered that Islam be suspended for 12 months, with the suspension to be followed by a further 12 months during which he may work as a solicitor only with the SRA’s permission. He also agreed to pay £41,350 towards the SRA’s costs.

The case was reported by Law Gazette news editor John Hyde, whose account records the tribunal’s findings, sanction and mitigation in full. The significance attached to the misconduct lay in its data-protection dimension: a Home Office litigation caseworker using a system he knew was restricted to limited purposes to check on immigration cases touching his own firm, his family and an acquaintance, after being warned on taking up the post about exactly that kind of access.

Current Status

Islam resigned from his Home Office role in November 2019, a few months after starting it. He qualified as a solicitor in October 2020. Under the tribunal’s order he is suspended for 12 months, after which he is subject to conditions requiring SRA permission to work as a solicitor for a further 12 months. The ruling was reported in August 2026, and the published record of the tribunal’s findings and sanction stands as the public account of the case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

In his own mitigation, Islam acknowledged that his actions fell short of the standards expected of a solicitor, although he pointed out that he was not admitted at the time the conduct took place. The conduct occurred at a time of significant personal difficulty, when he struggled with the burden of his studies, two jobs and a pregnant wife, and the tribunal heard there have been no disciplinary issues before or since.

The sanction nonetheless materially restricts his practising career: for 12 months he is suspended from working as a solicitor, and for the 12 months after that he can practise only with the SRA’s prior permission. The £41,350 costs contribution adds a substantial financial burden to a regulatory outcome that arrived years after the conduct itself, following the Home Office resignation that ended his civil-service role in 2019 and the qualification he achieved in October 2020.

Sources

• Law Gazette, “Home Office caseworker wrongly accessed files in second job as trainee,” Aug 26, 2026 — source