A 61-year-old man was on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, arraigned in court for the offence of impersonating an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
Simon Githu Mbugua was arrested on Monday by Serious Crime Unit (SCU) detectives for writing a fake demand letter for an unsuspecting member of the public, who had been defrauded of some Ksh20,000.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the suspect was nabbed at Muindi Mbingu Street in downtown Nairobi after writing and forwarding the demand letter while pretending to be Winny A. Ochwal Advocates - Commissioner for Oaths.
"Upon search in his Kimathi Hse office, a stamp reading Winny A. Ochwal Advocates was recovered before he was arrested and booked at Muthaiga Police Station," DCI said.
Mbugua was arraigned at Milimani Law Courts, where he faced one charge of pretending to be an advocate contrary to section 33 as read with section 85(1) of the Advocates Act.
The court released the accused on Ksh100,000 cash bail pending the mention of the case at Milimani's court number 4 on March 5, 2024.
Cases of fraudsters masquerading as lawyers have been on the rise in recent months.
Last week, police in Nakuru arrested Boniface Kirima who is said to have been posing as a lawyer without a practising licence.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) busted Kirima in his house at Gate House Nakuru where they claimed they found dozens of fake land title deeds.
Another suspect, Brian Mwenda, made headlines in October last year after LSK accused him of infiltrating its systems and stealing a member's identity.
In a statement, LSK President Eric Theuri accused Mwenda of stealing the identity of Brian Mwenda Ntwiga through a fraud scheme known as Business Email Compromise (BEC).
Mwenda was arrested and charged in court with faking to be an advocate. The case is pending in court.
