Introduction
Every time I hear about A Shade Greener, it seems to turn a shade darker.
I initially wrote about A Shade Greener’s involvement in SLAPPs, seemingly spearheaded by Stewart Davies. Then I updated with some of the absurdity of its in-house solicitor Gary ‘SLAPPer’ Anderson. I then followed up about its in-house solicitor Brian ‘the Bodger’ Fowler.
Unfortunately, it seems, that things have not stopped there….. Now there is new person on my radar called Anne Emmerson, who carries herself off as a solicitor – but she isn’t one!
The Law
Before we get to Anne Emmerson herself, let’s be super clear about the law, so we can be totally clear on what you can and can’t do.
Firstly, according to the SRA Website:
It is a criminal offence for someone to call themselves a solicitor or act as a solicitor if they are not on the roll of solicitors. We call these people ‘bogus solicitors’ and we may prosecute them.
Secondly, also on the SRA website:
All genuine solicitors are on the roll of solicitors, which we administer, and will be able to give you their SRA number on request.
Thirdly, in accordance with Section 20 of the Solicitors Act 1974:
(1)No unqualified person is to act as a solicitor. (2)Any person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for not more than 2 years or to a fine, or to both
Fourthly, in accordance with Section 21 of the Solicitors Act 1974:
Any unqualified person who wilfully pretends to be, or takes or uses any name, title, addition or description implying that he is, qualified or recognised by law as qualified to act as a solicitor shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the fourth level on the standard scale
So basically, to claim to be a solicitor you need to actually be one – not unreasonable! If you are not a qualified solicitor, it is a criminal offence to claim to be one. If there is any ambiguity about whether or not someone is a qualified solicitor, the SRA website maintains the list of people who are.
We know from the case of Ryan Hermann, that the SRA can impose what is known as a Section 43 Order to stop people claiming to be solicitors when they are not. For clarity, the Order against Hermann was discharged after the SDT found that he had not falsely claimed to be a solicitor.
I don’t think you can’t get any clearer than that?
Anne Emmerson is not a Solicitor
It’s really that simple. Anne Emmerson of A Shade Greener is not a qualified solicitor. She is not on the role of solicitors and she is not on the Law Society website.
Just to prove this, this is what happens when you search for “Anne Emmerson” on the SRA website. Juliet Anne Emmerson is very obviously not the same person as Anne Elizabeth Emmerson, for the avoidance of doubt.
That’s fine, I am not a solicitor either……as I am very very clear about!
Anne Emmerson claims to be a Solicitor
Some will say this is a very serious allegation to make. Indeed it is an allegation of “civil and criminal liability”, to quote Gary Anderson! Unfortunately, unlike the waffle Gary Anderson writes – in the case of Anne Emmerson it is provably true she claims to be a solicitor, despite not being qualified and/or regulated.
A Shade Greener Limited
According to Companies House, Anne Emmerson – or more specifically Anne Elizabeth Emmerson – claimed to be a “Solicitor” working for A Shade Greener Limited.
A Shade Greener Money Plc
Also according to Companies House, Anne Emmerson – or more specifically Anne Elizabeth Emmerson – was a “Solicitor” working for A Shade Greener Money Plc.
The Press Release
On a date unclear to me, The Solar Guide ran an article about A Shade Greener (more criticisms of ASG’s practices). Within that article it said:
However, Yorkshire-based solar company A Shade Greener said that their lease and procedures did comply with the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ (CML) guidelines. Not only that, but when the CML were putting together their guidelines they consulted with Anne Emmerson, who is A Shade Greener’s legal director and in-house solicitor.
The Sales Material
What is more concerning to me than Companies House filings or press releases is that A Shade Greener were prepared go to the extent of continuing Emmerson’s claims on sales and promotional material which explicitly lists Anne Emmerson as it’s “solicitor”, when she is clearly not a solicitor.
According to A Shade Greener’s website, under the FAQ section:
Our in-house solicitor Anne Emmerson will confirm this.
It even goes on to provide an email address for customers to contact to get this ‘confirmation’.
Now….. I am not going to get into the complaints about A Shade Greener and all the issues people have been having with leases, selling their homes, unkown charges on their properties, etc….. (yet)…… But its dangerous for A Shade Greener to be stating that an unqualified non-solicitor will “confirm” anything.
Anne Emmerson is clearly not a qualified solicitor, she is not on the roll of solicitors, she is not able to give any legally qualified advice. It is totally illegal for her (a) to claim she is a solicitor and (b) proffer any advice, especially to third parties. This of course notwithstanding that people should seek their own independent legal advice – which clearly isn’t going to come from someone who has an invested interest in selling you some solar panels.
Even if you do or did take Emmerson’s advice……when it turns out to be wrong or poor, you’ve literally nowhere to turn because she’s unregulated and thus uninsured.
The Excuses
According to a report made, Anne Emmerson claimed the reason Companies House lists her as a “Solicitor” is because of the fixed fields on the Companies House website when it comes to selecting an occupation, which only gave her fixed options.
However this stretches credibility when some people have managed to state their occupation with Companies House as (very precisely), for example as a “Cilex Board Member”……
……. or even a “Circus Consultant”, which I very much doubt made its way into a fixed set of occupations.
Companies House states that if there are errors or mistakes, it should be informed within 14 days of that error being discovered. So there seems to be no good reason as to why this mistake wasn’t corrected.
Even if the Companies House thing is true (I am 99.9% sure it’s bollocks), in the case of the Press Release and the FAQ page on A Shade Greener’s website – I cannot see any reason why those websites (written in a ‘freehand’ way) would claim Anne Emmerson to be a “solicitor” when she’s clearly not.
Conclusion
Well, another week passes and more and more comes out of the woodwork about A Shade Greener……in particular their legal representatives (or more accurately, not). I’ve not even started to unpick the actual issues with the company yet.
The fact simply is Anne Emmerson is not a solicitor. She is not qualified as a solicitor. She is not on the roll/register of solicitors. She is not insured or regulated as a solicitor. She should not and should never have given any legal advice to anyone, including A Shade Greener themselves – let alone “confirmations” to customers considering installing solar panels, which is clearly going to be partisan.
This is another reason to steer well clear of A Shade Greener and Stewart Davies!
