Chair of Essex County Cricket Club, Anurag Mohindru, has stepped down from the club with immediate effect, days after he was disbarred having been found to have lied about studying at Oxford University.
The KC (King's Counsel) was found to have 'knowingly mis-led' an interview panel when he applied for a tenancy at 23 Essex Street Chambers in 2013 by asserting that he had studied at Oxford University. Mohindru denied two charges of professional misconduct to a five-person disciplinary panel in London last week.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) stated that Mohindru had "deliberately exaggerated his academic achievements and qualifications in an attempt to improve his tenancy prospects," and said that Mohindru had doubled down on the claims by sending the Chambers a CV which detailed his medical studies at the university from 1993 to 1994. The BSB said that inquiries made by Oxford University found no record of Mohindru as a student. Mohindru denied "knowingly" providing false information.
Mohindru was immediately suspend by the disciplinary panel, pending appeal, and was ordered to pay nearly £55,000 in costs. A second professional misconduct allegation that Mohindru falsely claimed to have qualified as a medical doctor, was dismissed. On Tuesday, September 16, Essex County Cricket club released a statement confirming that Mohindru had stepped down as club chair, with Jason Gallian set to take over as interim chair.
"Essex County Cricket Club would like to place on record its thanks to Anu for his leadership and significant contribution during his time as Chair of the Club," read a club statement.
Mohindru was called to the bar in 2004, and was described by chair of the disciplinary panel which suspended him, Nicholas Ainsley, to have had a "brilliantly successful" career. In 2018, Mohindru represented Ben Stokes in his trial for affray at Bristol Crown Court. Stokes was acquitted of the charge which arose from an incident outside a nightclub following an ODI against West Indies. Three years earlier, Mohindru appeared in the trial of three men who were charged with people smuggling after 35 people from Afghanistan were found in a container at Tilbury docks.
In mitigation for Mohindru, his barrister Mark Harries KC said the lawyer had made a "gross error of judgement which had come back to haunt him."
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