AN immigration lawyer who mismanaged asylum seekers' applications and refused to pay interpreters' fees has been suspended from practising law indefinitely.

Solicitor Joseph Ssengooba Nnyanzi, 50, of Northumberland Road, North Harrow, is the former boss of Nnyanzi and Company in Kilburn, which has now closed.

Mr Nnyanzi failed to appear before the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal on Tuesday. The hearing continued in his absence and his practising certificate was terminated and he was ordered to pay £3,455 costs.

George Marriott, for the Law Society, said that Mr Nnyanzi compromised his duty to the court; breached immigration guidelines regarding his caseload; failed to communicate with a client, and failed to reply to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) during 2001 and 2002.

The tribunal was told that an asylum seeker named as C was refused leave to stay in the UK, but Nnyanzi bungled the appeal listed in February 2001. The appeal adjudicator was disturbed to hear that C had not had any contact with the solicitor and the double-booked barrister arrived nearly three hours late. The adjudicator reported Mr Nnyanzi to the Immigration Appellant Authority.

C sacked the solicitor and the OSS demanded an explanation of his conduct of the case. But he failed to receive a satisfactory explanation from Mr Nnyanzi, who claimed he was under great pressure after two case-workers left his firm.

Interpreters AMC, owed £1,877, and EJ, owed more than £300, were forced to obtain county court judgements to extract the cash from the solicitor. He eventually paid EJ £100, but AMC did not receive a penny.

Another failed asylum seeker client, EA, also sacked Mr Nnyanzi. His new firm demanded the case file, but received no reply. The OSS was told, and in August 2001 Mr Nnyanzi claimed the file had been sent, but throughout 2001 he said he was still looking for it.

"The old files may be in his practice, his house, his garage, we don't know," said Mr Marriott.

Tribunal chairman Anthony Gibson ruled: "This is a bad case where a client has been neglected several times by this solicitor, and in his present state he is not fit to practise."