It's no secret that Khalid Missouri, a partner at Brixton law firm LLM Solicitors, is an ex-con, having been jailed for seven years in 1993 for acting as the getaway driver in an armed robbery of a Post Office branch.
Indeed, there is a comment on the Southern Daily Echo website from 2010 which details the conviction, alongside an unconfirmed claim that Missouri was "smart enough at the time to use his own red Fiat Uno" in the robbery.
But the story of Missouri's, er, colourful past came up again over the weekend, as it emerged that one of the solicitor's former co-defendants in the robbery – in which Post Office staff were threatened by masked men carrying a gun and a knife – had applied for his help defending him on a new charge...
Fouad Benabbou, who wielded the knife in the robbery, was facing a sex assault charge. Over to the Mail on Sunday:
As it turned out, one of Missouri's colleagues, rather than Missouri himself, went on to act for Benabbou, who was jailed for four years last August after being convicted on two counts of sexual assault.
When contacted by the Mail On Sunday, 42-year old Missouri – who qualified as a solicitor after leaving prison – said: "With regard to my conviction some 20 years ago, I can only reiterate how deeply sorry and ashamed I still am for my actions. I was rightly punished and have since tried my utmost to make amends. I disclosed my previous conviction to the Law Society well before my admission to the roll of solicitors. I have been a solicitor for some eight years and have an exemplary record of professional conduct."
A criminal conviction doesn't necessarily prevent people practising as solicitors. A spokesman for the Law Society said: "The Society would have looked closely at all the facts before allowing entry to the profession."
In an interesting extra twist, Missouri, who is head of advocacy at his firm, now regularly appears at Southampton Crown Court – the court where he was sent down all those years ago.
"Robber allowed to qualify as a solicitor in the same court that jailed him" [Mail Online]